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Cornering Russia - Risking World War III
Authored by Alastair Crooke, originally posted at ConsortiumNews.com,
Official Washington is awash with tough talk about Russia and the need to punish President Putin for his role in Ukraine and Syria. But this bravado ignores Russia’s genuine national interests, its “red lines,” and the risk that “tough-guy-ism” can lead to nuclear war, as Alastair Crooke explains.
We all know the narrative in which we (the West) are seized. It is the narrative of the Cold War: America versus the “Evil Empire.” And, as Professor Ira Chernus has written, since we are “human” and somehow they (the USSR or, now, ISIS) plainly are not, we must be their polar opposite in every way.
“If they are absolute evil, we must be the absolute opposite. It’s the old apocalyptic tale: God’s people versus Satan’s. It ensures that we never have to admit to any meaningful connection with the enemy.” It is the basis to America’s and Europe’s claim to exceptionalism and leadership.
And “buried in the assumption that the enemy is not in any sense human like us, is [an] absolution for whatever hand we may have had in sparking or contributing to evil’s rise and spread. How could we have fertilized the soil of absolute evil or bear any responsibility for its successes? It’s a basic postulate of wars against evil: God’s people must be innocent,” (and that the evil cannot be mediated, for how can one mediate with evil).
Westerners may generally think ourselves to be rationalist and (mostly) secular, but Christian modes of conceptualizing the world still permeate contemporary foreign policy.
It is this Cold War narrative of the Reagan era, with its correlates that America simply stared down the Soviet Empire through military and – as importantly – financial “pressures,” whilst making no concessions to the enemy.
What is sometimes forgotten, is how the Bush neo-cons gave their “spin” to this narrative for the Middle East by casting Arab national secularists and Ba’athists as the offspring of “Satan”: David Wurmser was advocating in 1996, “expediting the chaotic collapse” of secular-Arab nationalism in general, and Baathism in particular. He concurred with King Hussein of Jordan that “the phenomenon of Baathism” was, from the very beginning, “an agent of foreign, namely Soviet policy.”
Moreover, apart from being agents of socialism, these states opposed Israel, too. So, on the principle that if these were the enemy, then my enemy’s enemy (the kings, Emirs and monarchs of the Middle East) became the Bush neo-cons friends. And they remain such today – however much their interests now diverge from those of the U.S.
The problem, as Professor Steve Cohen, the foremost Russia scholar in the U.S., laments, is that it is this narrative which has precluded America from ever concluding any real ability to find a mutually acceptable modus vivendi with Russia – which it sorely needs, if it is ever seriously to tackle the phenomenon of Wahhabist jihadism (or resolve the Syrian conflict).
What is more, the “Cold War narrative” simply does not reflect history, but rather the narrative effaces history: It looses for us the ability to really understand the demonized “calous tyrant” – be it (Russian) President Vladimir Putin or (Ba’athist) President Bashar al-Assad – because we simply ignore the actual history of how that state came to be what it is, and, our part in it becoming what it is.
Indeed the state, or its leaders, often are not what we think they are – at all. Cohen explains: “The chance for a durable Washington-Moscow strategic partnership was lost in the 1990 after the Soviet Union ended. Actually it began to be lost earlier, because it was [President Ronald] Reagan and [Soviet leader Mikhail] Gorbachev who gave us the opportunity for a strategic partnership between 1985-89.
“And it certainly ended under the Clinton Administration, and it didn’t end in Moscow. It ended in Washington — it was squandered and lost in Washington. And it was lost so badly that today, and for at least the last several years (and I would argue since the Georgian war in 2008), we have literally been in a new Cold War with Russia.
“Many people in politics and in the media don’t want to call it this, because if they admit, ‘Yes, we are in a Cold War,’ they would have to explain what they were doing during the past 20 years. So they instead say, ‘No, it is not a Cold War.’
“Here is my next point. This new Cold War has all of the potential to be even more dangerous than the preceding 40-year Cold War, for several reasons. First of all, think about it. The epicentre of the earlier Cold War was in Berlin, not close to Russia. There was a vast buffer zone between Russia and the West in Eastern Europe.
“Today, the epicentre is in Ukraine, literally on Russia’s borders. It was the Ukrainian conflict that set this off, and politically Ukraine remains a ticking time bomb. Today’s confrontation is not only on Russia’s borders, but it’s in the heart of Russian-Ukrainian ‘Slavic civilization.’ This is a civil war as profound in some ways as was America’s Civil War.”
Cohen continued: “My next point: and still worse – You will remember that after the Cuban Missile Crisis, Washington and Moscow developed certain rules-of-mutual conduct. They saw how dangerously close they had come to a nuclear war, so they adopted “No-Nos,’ whether they were encoded in treaties or in unofficial understandings. Each side knew where the other’s red line was. Both sides tripped over them on occasion but immediately pulled back because there was a mutual understanding that there were red lines.
“TODAY THERE ARE NO RED LINES. One of the things that Putin and his predecessor President Medvedev keep saying to Washington is: You are crossing our Red Lines! And Washington said, and continues to say, ‘You don’t have any red lines. We have red lines and we can have all the bases we want around your borders, but you can’t have bases in Canada or Mexico. Your red lines don’t exist.’ This clearly illustrates that today there are no mutual rules of conduct.
“Another important point: Today there is absolutely no organized anti-Cold War or Pro-Detente political force or movement in the United States at all –– not in our political parties, not in the White House, not in the State Department, not in the mainstream media, not in the universities or the think tanks. … None of this exists today. …
“My next point is a question: Who is responsible for this new Cold War? I don’t ask this question because I want to point a finger at anyone. The position of the current American political media establishment is that this new Cold War is all Putin’s fault – all of it, everything. We in America didn’t do anything wrong. At every stage, we were virtuous and wise and Putin was aggressive and a bad man. And therefore, what’s to rethink? Putin has to do all of the rethinking, not us.”
These two narratives, the Cold War narrative, and the neocons’ subsequent “spin” on it: i.e. Bill Kristol’s formulation (in 2002) that precisely because of its Cold War “victory,” America could, and must, become the “benevolent global hegemon,” guaranteeing and sustaining the new American-authored global order – an “omelette that cannot be made without breaking eggs” – converge and conflate in Syria, in the persons of President Assad and President Putin.
President Obama is no neocon, but he is constrained by the global hegemon legacy, which he must either sustain, or be labeled as the arch facilitator of America’s decline. And the President is also surrounded by R2P (“responsibility-to-protect”) proselytizers, such as Samantha Power, who seem to have convinced the President that “the tyrant” Assad’s ouster would puncture and collapse the Wahhabist jihadist balloon, allowing “moderate” jihadists such as Ahrar al-Sham to finish off the deflated fragments of the punctured ISIS balloon.
In practice, President Assad’s imposed ouster precisely will empower ISIS, rather than implode it, and the consequences will ripple across the Middle East – and beyond. President Obama privately may understand the nature and dangers of the Wahhabist cultural revolution, but seems to adhere to the conviction that everything will change if only President Assad steps down. The Gulf States said the same about Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki in Iraq. He has gone (for now), but what changed? ISIS got stronger.
Of course if we think of ISIS as evil, for evil’s sake, bent on mindless, whimsical slaughter, “what a foolish task it obviously [would be] to think about the enemy’s actual motives. After all, to do so would be to treat them as humans, with human purposes arising out of history. It would smack of sympathy for the devil. Of course,” Professor Chernus continues, “this means that, whatever we might think of their actions, we generally ignore a wealth of evidence that the Islamic State’s fighters couldn’t be more human or have more comprehensible motivations.”
Indeed, ISIS and the other Caliphate forces have very clear human motivations and clearly articulated political objectives, and none of these is in any way consistent with the type of Syrian State that America says it wants for Syria. This precisely reflects the danger of becoming hostage to a certain narrative, rather than being willing to examine the prevailing conceptual framework more critically.
America lies far away from Syria and the Middle East, and as Professor Stephen Cohen notes, “unfortunately, today’s reports seem to indicate that the White House and State Department are thinking primarily how to counter Russia’s actions in Syria. They are worried, it was reported, that Russia is diminishing America’s leadership in the world.”
It is a meme of perpetual national insecurity, of perpetual fears about America’s standing and of challenges to its standing, Professor Chernus suggests.
But Europe is not “far away”; it lies on Syria’s doorstep. It is also neighbor to Russia. And in this connection, it is worth pondering Professor Cohen’s last point: Washington’s disinclination to permit Russia any enhancement to its standing in Europe, or in the non-West, through its initiative strategically to defeat Wahhabist jihadism in Syria, is not only to play with fire in the Middle East. It is playing with a fire of even greater danger: to do both at the same time seems extraordinarily reckless.
Cohen again: “The false idea [has taken root] that the nuclear threat ended with the Soviet Union: In fact, the threat became more diverse and difficult. This is something the political elite forgot. It was another disservice of the Clinton Administration (and to a certain extent the first President Bush in his re-election campaign) saying that the nuclear dangers of the preceding Cold War era no longer existed after 1991. The reality is that the threat grew, whether by inattention or accident, and is now more dangerous than ever.”
As Europe becomes accomplice in raising the various pressures on Russia in Syria – economically through sanctions and other financial measures, in Ukraine and Crimea, and in beckoning Montenegro, Georgia and the Baltic towards NATO – we should perhaps contemplate the paradox that Russia’s determination to try to avoid war is leading to war.
Russia’s call to co-operate with Western states against the scourge of ISIS; its low-key and carefully crafted responses to such provocations as the ambush of its SU-24 bomber in Syria; and President Putin’s calm rhetoric, are all being used by Washington and London to paint Russia as a “paper tiger,” whom no one needs fear.
In short, Russia is being offered only the binary choice: to acquiesce to the “benevolent” hegemon, or to prepare for war.
* * *
Alastair Crooke (born 1950) is a British diplomat. Previously he was a ranking figure in British intelligence (MI6).
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another one on the Putin mafia payroll.
Camera on a stick company Go-Pro, after a stock loss of nearly 85% from it's high, is announcing a series of mergers.
Go-Pro, Mattels Pogo-Stick division and an unnamed gentlemans club chain will become:
GO-PRO-POGO-A-GO-GO.
( neat huh? )
A timeline: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nq-ZmatOlvs
"David Wurmser was advocating in 1996, “expediting the chaotic collapse” of secular-Arab nationalism..."
Great, anyone have a plan for unravelling the Neocons? I'm all ears.
Putin has time on his side, Zionist do not. Bernake made sure of that.
Professor Steve Cohen, the foremost Russia scholar in the U.S., laments, is that it is this narrative which has precluded America from ever concluding any real ability to find a mutually acceptable modus vivendi with Russia – which it sorely needs, if it is ever seriously to tackle the phenomenon of Wahhabist jihadism (or resolve the Syrian conflict).
Wow, the foremost scholar on Russia is one dumb motherfucker. Did nobody tell this stupid asshole that the west funds jihadism in order to conquer Russia?
Everybody is so obsessed with Putin. Yes, he is a strong leader and yes he has his own murky past, but Russia has this thing called a parliament. From what I can tell, it's less dysfunctional than the CONgress.
Would you please elaborate on the "murky past"? Thanks. (Other than kgb etc)
Those Ba'athist socialists really screwed the pooch. What about the mom and pop oil producers that used to populate small town arabia? I remember when I was a little kid, all you needed was some hard work and you could go out there and hire geologists and buy the land and invest in the drilling infrastructure, just with a little elbow grease. Not everyone made it, but we believed in the arabian dream... that someday, we too might be billionaires if we really worked hard enough.
Perhaps he does mean Putin's past as a member of the KGB. You know, like GHWB's murky past as head of the CIA.
ah heck, for that all you need is the 60 minutes or frontline version of the 'real' putin, yeah, it's pre kgb, more like guvner/mayor mafioso stuff. the only time i've seen an msm story use an interwebs reporter for thier story...i wish they'd do that iwth GHWB.
No, much worse than that. Vlad needed the Chechan war, tho I forget why, and got it by using the GRU to bomb the apartment houses. I believe that evidence is reputable, but of course I read it online.
Aslo, Vlad was in a contest-conflict with sections of the Russian oligarchy. Some big oligarchs over there, with 100s I have read for sure and I think 1000s of household troops. (One of the oligarchs in the Ukraine converted employees of large companies he owned into troops, on their Nazi Kiev Ukrainian side that case was, from memory I think to be good.)
The Yukos oil company issue was the next thing, and was straight-out government theft, aimed at the person who was advocating more democracy for Russia. Our Russian friends thought he was the good guy in the country, and started thinking negative about Putin at that time, probably better than my opinion on 2nd-hand sources in most of the media. That was 2006, the web's blogging wasn't so developed as now.
And it was before there was, from memory, much information about the US government using the NGOs and CIA to influence governments, so who knows what the Yukos story really is?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yukos
And I read about him having $Bs in accounts outside of Russia, don't recall the sources, and no one should trust any MSM and not a lot of web sites, as I am finding while looking for more 9/11 perspectives. If civilization ever recovers from what is inevitable, we certainly will have enough data to understand what went wrong, how many sold out.
Anyway, Vlad hammered an oligarch for probably-political reasons, but who knows what went on behind those scenes, and who knows whether the oligarchs' house troops are wise precautions in a country where the sovereign can seize your property and kill you?
So Vlad isn't doing Syria out of the goodness of his heart, but he is the only world leader we can be pretty sure has not sold out to the Israeli-Neocons. The world's opposition to the Israeli-Neocons will now coalesce around Vlad, which is how you become the world leader. Question is if he is smart enough to go on being honest about things. And the usual follow-on questions of reasons for such a leader to continue to be honest.
Discordianism, the world's only empirically validated religion. The main belief is that imposing order creates disorder, force creates its opposition.
Interesting to see it happening. And get to help. We get to run psyops too.
You better read about all of these events from various sources.
Let me just tell you this: Ukraine is not a country, it is badlands ruled by Mafioso families. The country is still stuck with Soviet-era infrastructure despite having resources, agricolture and heavy industry.
Before Vlad took over Russia was exactly the same. I say this as someone with assets in Russia. Everything worked through bribes. So when you see events like Yukos or the Oligarchy events described on Wikipedia ask yourself: why did fighting the Oligarchs and their companies make Russia more prosperous and less corrupt than ever before in its modern history?
I see those events like the majority sees them in Russia. Vladimir Putin almost single-handedly destroyed the Mafia that controlled the country and even forbid it from entering the country. What you see as "murky" is perceived in Russia to be as murky as Hercules slaying the Hydra, or a surgeon skillfully removing a cancer.
So indeed, Putin is not acting in Syria for the Syrians alone, but for the stability and safety of Russia. Russia, not the lobbyists. There's an enormous difference.
BOT TAK
Am en, thank you. I travelled there in 92...big difference then and now. I know having investigated for research project, the Clinton admin, Harvards HIID, IMF fucked up a bad situation and made it worse. Putin did bring reform, and did get rid of the more egregious oligar hs. He is not perfect but compared to our lot....at least he puts his country first, rather then monied interests in corpo banking internationale. Makes me sad, but we are led by psychpaths, and Putin knows it. Look up Steve FORBES, FLAT TAX and Putin...it will open up a whole new world of insight into Putin and modern Russia.
These scumbags have ripped off every former
Soviet block country. Russia was the one with most
resources so that's where these ticks got the fattest.
In smaller counties they have stolen everything there was to steal....mostly. There is still some land that they could grab.
Russia is the only one that was lucky to get someone in position of power that cared about it.
Actually I think Belarus is also in that position and so their leader is vilified as well.
OK, but did or did not Vlad get rich? and did or did not Vlad benefit from the Chechan war? and did or did not the GRU make that war happen via the apt house bombing?
Vlad's great popularity could mean what you say, but recall that our Presidents have been skillful at raising their popularity on the backs of wars, etc.
Hope you are right, hope that interpretation of mine is wrong, and certainly could have been misled by opinions I hear from Russians here. They are mixed, and I distrust the Israeli-contingent.
Who cares about his KGB past, its not like people had career choices in the Soviet Union.
You were placed.
what murky media lied about mostly
If you read what Putin wants it comes down to Russia wanting to be treated with respect. That the US should look at this position as being unacceptable is compelling proof that if there is an evil empire that needs to be defeated today, it is the US.
Even Vlad's opposition among Russias we know say 'respect'.
Not the US but those that have taken it over. It goes back to JFK, here is one of the good guys https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SShXDJKG4BA. More here http://www.jfklancer.com/audioconversations.html
USSA must destroy Russia or lose its own world currency reserver fiat...the Petrodollar.
Congrats, it seems you've completely missed Cohen's point.
nope, he hit the nail right on the head
You think Cohen is unaware that the West is funding terrorism?
Professor Cohen probably knows this better than you or I. The focus of this article is Russia. You would do well to read some more Steve Cohen.
Look at his name...he's a self-chosenite...they are mortal enemies of Russia....they will NEVER tell the truth about Russia nor will they give them the benefit of the doubt, Russia is their enemy because it refuses to be a zionist puppet like every other country...hence "evil"
The Western nations underestimated the horrible trauma that the Russian society experienced in 1990s when the Russians peacefully surrendered their society, their lands, their economy to the West, hoping to be accepted and treated as equals by the “world” community. Instead, the West dealt with the Russian skillfully, decisively, and mercilessly, just like the American Indians were dealt with by the colonizers. The Russia was gutted, scalped, and hanged on a cross to die slow and painful death. Some say that Russia like a cat has nine lives. Others say that Russia died and resurrected like Phoenix or Jesus. Open wounds have not healed yet, when after the February 22nd 2014 putsch in Kiev, and publication of the US Department of Defense tenders on the constructions of facilities in Sevastopol for the US fleet and NAVY everyone in Russia, including its government, understood that it was a declaration of war, and stood up in arms.
http://thesaker.is/ukraine-sitrep-december-13th-2015-by-scott/
The surrender was deliberate as was the collapse of the Soviet Union. The Soviet Union was disbanded by Russia to preserve the resources to save Russia. The abject surrender to the West under Boris Nikolayevich Yeltsin was orchestrated to prove to the Russian population the fate that awaits them if Russia were not strong enough to defend herself from the West. Remember Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin was handpicked by Boris Nikolayevich Yeltsin himself to succeed him. Vladimir Putin knows the West cannot be reasoned with. But he tried his best to reason with them, in order to prove to his people that the West must be detroyed for Russia to live in peace and with dignity. After Ukraine and Syria, Russians have no illusions left about how the West intends to treat Russia. Russians are ready for any action Putin may take against the West and any fall out from it for themselves.
Wow, I haven't seen a rationalization for the sufferers of low self-esteem to lash out in anger since the latest dreck to spew out of the black community in the US spurred the SJW's to foment hate in the streets.
Pretending one side or the other is innocent is ignorant and naive.
Bottom line, the very nature of mankinds flaws take bloom in times of desperation and only the all-consuming fire of war can subdue the virus.
The inevitable is inevitable, thinking one side will back down and the other will be gracious in victory is a fools dream.
Look to the rebirth, if you survive perhaps you'll be a part of it.
.
"It is the basis to America’s and Europe’s claim to exceptionalism and leadership". seriously?
"What is sometimes forgotten, is how the Bush neo-cons gave their “spin” to this narrative for the Middle East by casting Arab national secularists and Ba’athists as the offspring of “Satan”: David Wurmser was advocating in 1996, “expediting the chaotic collapse” of secular-Arab nationalism in general, and Baathism in particular. He concurred with King Hussein of Jordan that “the phenomenon of Baathism” was, from the very beginning, “an agent of foreign, namely Soviet policy.”"
so? yes, King Hussein is right, in the very beginning it was mainly the Soviet Union that fostered Ba'athism. and again, so? the Soviet Union is no more
Then the Soviet Union did the world a favor. These were strong government that kept the tribal hordes at peace.
Their best feature is that they neutral to religion.
Frankly in the land of vicious religious zealots
that is a major achievement.
Destroying that is an an of utmost stupidity.
Here is your Putin reply:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hQAgrCuKwPc&index=3&list=RDdTnxFgmQLKc
My reply will be when I meet you and kiss your dead forehead.
Peace.
Thanx Insurrexion, this is fucking beautiful. And as close to heaven as you can get.
Like this one: https://youtu.be/e4dT8FJ2GE0
My personal favourite https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZtEKmYRwXQY
Obama is stark raving mad, and his female neocons - Nuland, Powers and assorted other power hungry bitches - are too busy following orders from Israel to realize they are on a treasonous path to World War III. Putin will vaporize Raqqa with one of his new nuclear weapons that works like a neutron bomb. In all likelihood, when the first Kalibr cruise missiles hit ISIS/Bush's Captagon meth plant in Raqqa, the U.S. National Reconnaissance Office couldn't even detect them to warn CIA black ops spies in the drug facility to run. Putin knows Erdogan was following Obama's orders when Erdogan let US Air Force pilots in Turkish planes shot down the Russian bomber.
You left out those tricked out ELF Tech which Purin will use to virtually turn off all the West's radar frequencies.
The US and NATO were shocked when it occurred.
Russians already used it a couple of times to demo it working.
All those US Cruise missiles disabled.
In the mean time Putin can pound those bunkers multiple times until their toast. The Russians already know where their located.
Russia, China and North Korea would be nuking the US.
North Khttp://www.businessinsider.com/us-general-north-korea-has-nuclear-capabl...
Korea has developed the ability to miniaturize nuclear warheads and launch them at the US, the general in
charge of the North American Aerospace Defense Command (Norad)
>>>>In the mean time Putin can pound those bunkers multiple times until their toast. <<<<
Their toast? What does someone's toast have to do with anything?
I hope that at the very least it is French toast.
USS Ronald Reagan's first-hand experience.
The first nation to lose conventionally will resort to Nukes.
As Russia demonstrates her death wish...
Yes America will probably opt for the first strike.
But placing blame really does not matter much...WHEN YOU ARE DEAD.
NOBODY WINS A NUCLEAR WAR.
I hope that Putin and his Military Advisors are smart enough to figure that out.
Games played like that on the USS Ronald Reagan will ensure the Nuclear Option is used.
I guess that it is called Russian Roulette for a reason...
It wasn't a game, it was a clear warning.
The Russian message to the US was,"DON'T EVEN THINK ABOUT IT."
Bullies and babies' tantrums must be nipped in the bud.
Russia has no death wish.
A clear warning?
Ever read about Game Theory?
If they believed that they were under attack that Tupolev would have been fired upon and splashed.
Then the stakes are raised. You get an unwanted escalation.
That is a risk.
That is a game...with potentially deadly consequences....FOR EVERYBODY.
It does not matter who fires first. It does not matter who fires last.
WHEN it happens we are all dead. There are NO SURVIVORS.
"Interesting GAME, Dr. Falken. The only winning move is NOT TO PLAY". ~ WOPR in War Games.
Too much BS. Take a pill, pal...
Did you read the link?
American radar was jammed. If you see an enemy plane, it is no threat because missles are launched before visual contact is achieved. The Russian plane had time to make several passes before planes were scrambled. The Ronald Reagan had its hands tied. It could not react. It could not see. Then when the Russians buzzed it, it was so that the crew could see as well. The Americans could not have taken the first shot, they would have missed. The Russians would not take the first shot. It was not a provocation, it was a message. This kind of thing goes on all the time. Only now, the Russians have an advantage and the Americans know it.
Message received, loud and clear.
They are. But what the Americans don't seem to be aware of is that for some there are worse things than being dead and in order to avoid these worse things, people are prepared to die and nations willing to risk annihilation.
Russia is willing to risk annihilation in order to be able to live peacefully and with dignity. Is the USA willing to risk annihilation in order to be able to continue to insult Russia and bully the world? If the USA is indeed willing to risk annihilation to continue to do that, it would be silly for Russia not to attack the USA while she still can, because if the US were ever to develop the capability to neutralise a Russian nuclear attack, Russia can be guaranteed she will be treated with no greater respect than Iraq under Saddam was. Neither being locked in a weapons race to keep the US vulnerable to Russian attacks nor being prepared to live under Western dictates are options for Russia.
If the US will be stupid enough to start a war with Russia or/and China, it will lose such a fight big time. That will be the end of America as we know it, and also the end of the contemporary Western "elite" whether they believe it or not. Their move...
"and also the end of the contemporary Western "elite"
Our DC Beltway and NYC elites are wildly delusional about "their" ability to win a nuclear war. They listen only to the defense contractors. In fact the West's elites are the prime target in a nuclear war, and even though a small and select strata might have time to hide in a deep bunker, the vast substrata that supports them, runs their bureaucracies and mans their deep state will certainly be annihilated.
No intelligent power like Russia is likely to waste a perfectly good nuke on Paducah Kentucky, but it is certain that the entire population of Manhattan Island, and the DC beltway will be vaporized along with West Los Angeles (propaganda production central) and Silly Valley. The effluvia of the silos in Iowa and Nebraska can be intercepted. Remarkably, our elites and their supporting substrata still believe that the main combatants will be rural boys from Texas and Tennessee which in a strange turn of justice will be the safest places to hide. Our 400 or so billionaire oligarchs who control this country are concentrated in about 20 zip codes. Do you really think that Russia hasn't already targeted them? The whole point of nuclear war is to decapitate the regime but spare the resources and general population for future use, and the real regime, the oligarchs, occupy a very modest and easily cleared amount of territory.
The nuclear war our elites seek to provoke will be the first in nearly a thousand years in which the elites themselves will be on the front lines of the combat.
Stay away from the St. Lawrence seaway.
"A great many cities in the interior of the continent depend upon the seaway for the transport of goods and commodities. Toronto, Buffalo, Detroit, Cleveland, Milwaukee, and Chicago are all dependant on imports being shipped through the seaway to the Great Lakes. Being the easternmost point in the seaway, St. Lambert is the entry point and the most important link in the supply chain to the interior of the continent.
“The Great Lakes region receives special attention because the provinces and states in it constitute the fourth largest economy in the world…”"
I live within 20 kms of the St. Lambert locks. So do millions of other Canadians who seem to think this is simply a US/Russia problem. The city council here has no contingency plan. I do.
Forgive my self-referencing link, but this is important to me and my family.
I do like the way you think, Mr. P, and it's entertaining to speculate about war, TEOTWAWKI etc.
Personally, I think the biggest weakness the USA has is its increasingly diverse and divided population (which is also rather dumbed-down, infantile and irresponsible). The Pentagon and their masters must expect to resolve any future major conflict by means of technologic jujitsu; if they think that "Americans from all walks of life" are going to rally in support of a major foreign war of choice, support mass conscription etc., they're making IMHO a big mistake.
Still, with enough provocation and manipulation, perhaps the typical Amurican can be goosed into enthusiasm for a "fight against Islam"; TPTB certainly seem to be giving this angle their best shot these days.
It is NOT TEOTWAWKI...
It is TEOTW,,,PERIOD.
Global Thermonuclear War is an ELE.
A Nuclear Winter kills EVERYONE. It will kill all Oxygen Breathers
Without ample sunlight there is NO OXYGEN.
We will nuke them and at the very least modern civilization will be destroyed.
It is a very good probability that Nuclear War will bring on a Nuclear Winter, which is just an ELE....Extinction Level Event.
Does placing blame really matter when you are dead?
Do you like that move, no matter who does it?
"They" (i.e. the Russians) stand a better chance to survive than us. Ours is a much more complex AND violent society than theirs. The Mad Max way of living works only in movie...
NO. THEY DO NOT.
NUCLEAR WINTER, PAL.
You will either freeze to death or succumb to suffocation due to LACK OF OXYGEN.
The ash will blot out most sunlight. Plants require sunlight to photosynthesize Carbon, from CO2, into complex sugars and starches.
They transpire OXYGEN.
Without the plants...YOU ARE DEAD.
Watch this video. Even the former Soviet Academy of Sciences concur with this modeling. NOBODY WILL SURVIVE. It is GLOBAL EXTINCTION. It is a God Damned Extinction Level Event.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WCTKcd2Ko98
I am a physicist. This is valid science. My warning is not without a solid foundation.
Then you know how good the Russian physicists.
and Russia less foolish about this subject.
You're not a very good physicist, I'm afraid. Nucleat winter will be very partial and it will affect continental US way more than Russia. Have you checked the weather over there ? Different weather patterns, and as a result, different vegetation patterns... and crops.
Did you do the modeling?
It will affect the Entire Globe.
Watch the film.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WCTKcd2Ko98
Both American Physicists and former Soviet Physicists agree.
Do you understand that it is a differential of Temperatures are the driving force of winds? Do you know anything about Thermodynamics?
You are not a physicist. That is a certainty since you believe that the effects will be localized.
Because of the myopia of people as yourself we are doomed. You will be the people willing to test the modeling. It is sad that you will not be here, and neither will I for that matter, for me to tell you that I told you so.
Stick with your Global Warming theory, and spare me the pseudo-scietific babbling. Anybody can model anything on a computer. Key word for you, GIGO... Besides, if none of us will be here to witness anything, why are you arguing ? There will be no way of knowing who was right. You sound like an ADHD bore...
What kind of physicist? I've never met one who didn't state his/her main field of study (unless it wasn't relevant.)
Biophysics, geophysics, astrophysics, chemical, medical, econo... there are a lot of branches of physics.
A physicist who studies photonics wouldn't know any more about Earth sciences than a plumber. I wouldn't ask a proctologist to operate on my brain, would you? *bites tongue and takes high road*
The notion that because somebody has studied a branch of pure and/or applied science they are experts in all sciences (the Big Bang Theory of education) must be eradicated. There are lots of people who can read a graph. Any physicist would also tell you that all models (especially very complex climate models) have their limits.
This is what the IPCC et alii has done to sully the good name of science. Biochemists claiming expertise in bio-diversity because both have 'bio' in their titles has no place in scientific discourse.
I don't doubt that you MAY have studied physics, but the relevance is not clear, off-hand, and it would be very difficult to prove, outright. Half-assed claims leave me skeptical, however. YouTube videos, moreso.
Astrophysics,
It does not matter. Physics is universal.
Fluid dynamics is still fluid dynamics, whether I am writing aboiut Planetary atmospheres or Oceanography. Thermodynamics is still thermodynamics,
We can watch and model what will happen.
Carl Sagan was a Planetary Scientist and was a supporting scientist on the Mariner Mars Missions. He is in that video.
From Wiki...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carl_Sagan
At the height of the Cold War, Sagan became involved in public awareness efforts for the effects ofnuclear war when a 1982 mathematical climate model, titled "Twilight at Noon" suggested that a substantial nuclear exchange could trigger a nuclear twilight and upset the delicate balance of life on Earth by cooling the surface. In 1983 he was one of five authors—the "S"—in the follow-up "TTAPS" report, as the research paper came to be known, which contained the term "nuclear winter" for the first time, a term coined by his colleague Richard P. Turco.[33][34] In 1984 he co-authored the book The Cold and the Dark: The World after Nuclear War and in 1990 he co-authored the book A Path Where No Man Thought: Nuclear Winter and the End of the Arms Race, which explains the nuclear winter hypothesis and with that advocates nuclear disarmament.
And as for Econophysics? Many physicists, regardless of the field of specialty, have been hired by the Financial Institutions. We have the Mathematical ability to do what is demanded. We are what are known as the Quants. No University of which I am aware has a Graduate Program in Econophysics.
Did you ever hear of Neel Kashkari? He studied Mechanical Engineering, He was employed by NASA for awhile and worked on the James Webb Space Telescope...before Goldman Sachs hired him. He was directed by Hank Paulson to manage TARP. He ran for Governor of the state of California and lost to Moonbeam.
People with my background are extremely skilled and versatile. I have worked in a variety of jobs "unrelated" and related to my studies. I have taught Physics. I have been a Computer Programmer for Business Applications. I have worked in the clean rooms of the Pharmaceutical Industry. I have also worked on Civil Engineering projects in the field in the muck and the mire.
I am not an AGW advocate. But I do understand Meteorology....as well as I have a rudimentary understanding of Chemistry and Biology.
Today my interest is in Cosmology and in unifying the Quantum Universe with the Macrouniverse..,I am of the belief that the key to understanding this is the Black Body curve as the holographic signature of the origin of the Universe. (Unfortunately it does not pay.)
What you have described here (quants, modeling, engineering, TARP) is math. Physics is not needed. As far as modeling goes, garbage in, garbage out. Climate models are useless as the variables involved are not well understood.
Farmers understand meteorology. Rudimentary understandings are shared by a great many non-scientists.
I don't see what fluid dynamics has to do with astrophysics, but I'd love to read some of your papers on the subject. Links?
You may very well be skilled and versatile, but that in no way qualifies you to claim expertise in a domain you're not lettered in.
So you're an amateur climate scientist, autodidactic, no doubt. I guess that qualifies you to push youtube videos. You seriously don't have anything more substantial to point to? Are there some PR papers on the topic of nuclear winter you can direct us to? Your claims of total death sound quite definitive.
ps_ NASA just put up a satellite to study aerosols in the atmosphere, and CERN is testing aerosols in cloud models. This is cutting edge, but these YT videos have all the answers... ??
I'm not convinced.
I regret that I have only upvote to give to my compatriot with the cryptic name.
Tall Tom said: "Astrophysics, It does not matter. Physics is universal. Fluid dynamics is still fluid dynamics, whether I am writing aboiut Planetary atmospheres or Oceanography. Thermodynamics is still thermodynamics"
excellent!! thank you Tall Tom.
please express your reminder to The System (of governments). I am not being facetious. sometimes i get the strong feeling that there are people who believe in other options besides deterrence.
I am retiring. I will be constructing sanctuaries for plants in other parts of the world. NO, I AM NOT JOKING. 50% of the Amazon rainforest will be gone in the next 30 years - a loss of thousands of species. This is a huge loss of biodoversity, and a tremendous loss in the potential to discover new medicines. I will be saving some of these species. And the sanctuaries also exist for the reason that you hinted at. Plants are essential to all life - without them - we are all dead.
--------------
And to all the beasts of the earth and all the birds in the sky and all the creatures that move along the ground—everything that has the breath of life in it—I give every green plant for food.” And it was so.
Genesis 1:30
--------------
Regarding the destruction of the Amazon Rainforest and other areas, including Africa, you only have to look at the real source of the problem. Too many friggng Humans. The supply has greatly exceeded the demand and contrary to what they want you to believe, they're not all that valuable.
Let me answer clearly. I agree with you completely. I agree 100%
The primary problem is OVERPOPULATION of the world. The human species is growing on an exponential curve. It is abundantly clear that this is impossible in an environment with limited resources. Something has to give. That something ... is the number of human beings.
Unfortunately, inside the USA the scientific debate has focused solely on Climate Change. "Climate change" is only one small part of the overall problem, and it is NOT the main driver for the crisis that is coming this century. The current global system is on a path towards a series of horribly destructive wars. It is an inevitable consequence of human behavior that mismanages the resources on our planet.
Perhaps now you can understand why I am doing - what I am doing. I wish you luck. Go in peace.
nuclear winter is a hoax...how many test nukes have been detonated since they were invented.
2,053 - 1945-1998
Here's an animation showing who, when, and where.
could back off the nuclear talkings? unkknow what is next...why you special foreteller?
no one 'wins' nuclear exchange, maybe only lesser loser...
kinda telling what ZH'rs already knows...
The question is NOT Russia's intent wrt the US, the question is our own Israeli-Neocon leader's intent for the world. That intent is military domination, and it is a danger to everyone on the planet, and it is our country, our responsibility. Russia is helping, giving us a bit of time, otherwise irrelevant in the equation.
Every war is a dice war. We construct narratives after the fact, but at the time things were less than obvious to both sides. Roll of the dice for every battle, every tactic and strategy.
Ultimately, and the major problem with wars and negative-sum games in general, is that you can't predict the future AT ALL for anything important. We know that because of the quite amazing losses that have happened in civilization, the failure rate is > 50% of wars, even when 'win' is measured as 'last man standing'. Nobody wins a war in more than that dimension, the costs are 1 or 2 generations of a country's accumulated wealth.
We suspect a nuclear war will be considerably worse. So forget war. That is not the way to solve this problem. The way to solve this problem is fixing our own gd gov. We have that within our power, wtf are we wating for? Our government is the huge danger in the world.
Way past time for the revolution. Start talking to friends in military and police and politics.
Call Rand Paul and tell him to bring up 9/11 in the debates tonight. Lets get this show on the road.
And start threatening your Congressman with hanging if a war is allowed. If anyone attacks anyone, we should hang them all and continue on to DC. Paris etc were always false flags, at least in the sense of allowed to happen. Assume everything now is a false flag, a major false flag is the signal to go occupy everythng.
Where are the people doing the Intelligence on all this? Lists of targets for every city, etc.
Always remember, Russia/Soviet Union is the consummate chess player and always plays the long game!
For example, in 1980 Russia invaded Afghanistan and in 1988 it left in defeat. Then in 1991 it split into 15 separate republics. In 1994 and 1998 it had a couple currency crises and devalued. And today it's organizing yet another currency crisis! Tomorrow it will attempt to reconstitute those 15 former Soviet republics under one name again - again, pure genius!
But it's always part of the long game - that little Vladimir is soooo wily, he's running circles around our brains!
In the comments a lot of prancing idiots.
Around your brain and even a cat with three legs would this task find trivial.
too bad you can't even make the simple distinction between the Soviet Union and Russia. other than that , you'are right!
other than that, was not right...
soviet was not so much 'defeated' as was stalemate...no one wins there forever
withdraw was orderly...main reason was problems at home, weakness leader, finances
The timing of the release of "Pawn Sacrifice" is telling. Of course, Bobby Fischer was insane, and Spassky took the high road. Do you think they were trying to tell us something?
Soviet did not so much invade. Soviet was already, support moderate government, building infrastructure,
schools and other. Girls attended school in dresses.
Search for photos Kabul in 60's 70's
Moderate leader was murdered in coup by extremist backed from outsiders.
Russians, moderates and monorities were slaughtered
That is when Soviet, after much concern debate, sent additonal forces.
Soviet was not defeated, but withdrew orderly result of collapse of funds, problems.
Soviet controlled more of country than west coalition ever did and alone, against outside interferences aiding radicals
there was some beginning of what is today, some nasty creations
You never understood there was other side, moderate and civil
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xc2KeSkl5H0
Yes, here is a video expose on how RT works!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SQQwBfux9i0
I they are not careful putin will make sure the god fearing mother fuckers in washington will see their imaginary heaven.
What a long article to play always the same partition: Putin is a victim. Assad is the nicest guy on Earth and everyone in the West is either stupid or evil....
Don't lose your time (instead move to Russia...)
http://redicecreations.com
All 1oz Silver coins are €12 @ EurGold
https://www.eurgold.de/silver/silver-coins/
What a shame, such stupidity; the other great power and nation that is at least still Western and Christian.
Europe appears to be lost, and yet the U.S. arms Muslim armies and pokes Russia on its borders. Abject insanity.
During WW2 American soldiers found that the German people had the only culture in Europe that equalled America's in every-day life. It was like an America that spoke German. We likely have very much in common with the Russian people too. Seems to be something very significant in that observation.
americans are inferior to Germans and Russians in every respect especially work habits, science, math, engineering
US is a marketing country which is why in part the banks just sell products and are not fiduciaries - sell junk
cos GDP....not that debt matters at all.../
AMERICAN??? CULTURE???
those two words contradict each other!
It's been that way since at least the Crimean War. 1850 or something.
SHORT VERSION: Nukes! Scary! Scary!
I've been saying duck and cover since I was eleven. Bring em on I say.
So you are suicidal?
Bring them on you say?
NUCLEAR WINTER. Nobody, and not even the people deep underground, will survive a Nuclear War.
The Sun will be blotted out. Plant photosynthesis will stop as they die from starvation due to lack of sunlight.
There will be no transpiration of OXYGEN as a result.
Any survivors will end up freezing to death or suffocating in an Oxygen depleted atmosphere.
Nuclear Winter is an ELE.
NOBODY survives a Nuclear War...NOBODY.
And you are suicidal?
????
Humanity just isn't that big of a deal. We don't have remotely enough nukes to create a nuclear winter.
What'll kill you.
Somewhere round 30 - 90 days and 80% of the population will be dead from a combination of 1 & 2 - exposure and dirty/lack of water.
If you want to kill civilian population, you take out the electricity supplies which are required by water and waste treatment plants. Or you take out the plant itself. Cholera, typhus etc will do the rest.
The nukes themselves will just take out the infrastructure which sustains the population. Numbers of deaths would be relatively small compared to the total.
War rather than surrender and lose all that is worth living for.
Valhalla. 1776 and all that...
But strike first at the center of the problem:
Tel Aviv or the BIS
In it to win it. No prisoners.
Give them change. They wanted it. So be it. They just won't like it.
The Jews are done being the banksters' punching bag. You strike Tel Aviv, you get a H-bomb dropped in your lap.
That's why Israel is still standing and has as much independence as she has. The banksters are afraid of her. None of them's ever found a decent hedge against a nuclear war in which the world's financial capitals would be among the first targets destroyed.
Deal with the banksters and only the banksters. The Jews will be the most grateful of all. If you get your wish for another Jewish holocaust, pray you're one of the first Gentiles to die with them.
i'm all about "unthinkinking the unthinkable" but yer nial fergasun without a paddle upstream shit aint working
I am confused. Aren't the jews and the banksters one in the same? Why would they attack themselves?
It is precisely now that we need world leaders who can work as skillfully as Swiss watchmakers.
Unfortunately Obama, Merkel, Holland, Cameron and the Neo-Cons they are surrounded by are ham handed blacksmiths.
PTI,
This was obvious weeks ago...
Somone please explain to me the russian capability of an offensive attack other than nukes? To me it seems there entire military effort is to thwart any aggression versus its borders, if that is the case then who gives a fuck. Especially if no one is going to go after moscow in a world war?
Putin is worth $50B, so he is going to launch nukes, just so he can get torched too? He is as materialistic as any fake boob bitch on Rodeo drive.
$50M bounty, still on the head of anyone who turns in the bombers of the civilian aircraft over Syria.
I think you misunderstand.
Price is something. Values are everything.
egypt
Nice down votes for what reason? Tell me why Putin needs $1,000 jogging pants and needs to film his workouts?
Submarines sniffing around the coasts of the US. It doesn't take long to go from the North Pole to the US coast line (One was found around Kbay and surfaced by the beach in GA), also Russia has long range bombers equipped with non nuclear options *KH-101* cruise missles.
I also believe Russia wouldn't have the manpower, if we are talking about full scale invasion. Seems to me it is more cost effective to conduct non linear warefare than classic conquest.
Pop off a couple dozen emp's over the US and it is lights out forever. After one year 90% of the population is dead the few people left will be throwing a parade when Putin shows up to share some clean water a plate of borscht.
THAT is how you fight wars and conquer continents.
It's super effective but not as fun. US strategy is setup an asshole dictator, Sadam, come in to kick the shit out of him, look like the good guys and bring in corporations to profit off the land and overextend your stay to the point they wish you never came. THEN leave and send in your 2nd string terrorists (ISIS) to take it over and make them sorry you left in the first place.
Watch this...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AuYd0EDgniA
Then watch this...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WCTKcd2Ko98
Nobody can win a Nuclear War. Nobody can survive. NOBODY.
You guys are crazy.
Do you really want Global Suicide?
borscht is a ukrainian dish
You're forgetting American emergency energy stores. They could easily last a year.
http://www.stupiditiz.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/fat-america-girl.jpg
It isn't the Russians who want to invade anyone, not even Crimea. Russia is focused on defense despite their overwhelming offensive capacity. The US doesn't have the manpower to invade Russia either, so the only outcome of any potential war between the two is vengeful annihilation. The Neo-cons truly are mad. They are betting Russia will fold rather than be destroyed.
Americans fight like Mel Gibson in Lethal Weapon, they act all crazy so the other just backs-off. Unpredictable and volatile is the only defense the US seems to have. Nobody wants to get too close.
See this is my point it is a mexican stand off- no one is doing anything to each other, becasue the conclusion was reached years ago that it is mutual destruction. they will continue to have little proxy wars to get wins, but they will never launch nukes at each other, it is a zero sum game.
They might launch tactical nukes at their proxies.
Baby steps...
you do realize every nuke can be traced to its origin right?
That's just it. For Putin's Russia, nuclear war is a threat to any state actors daft enough to try invading. Not a goal.
Ditto Israel.
Ditto Uncle Sugar, actually. He was never going to use a nuke against an enemy that could respond in kind. America's nuclear arsenal was most effective in discouraging another War of Southern Independence. If the South ever tried to rise again, President Hillary Clinton would think nothing of nuking Atlanta or Houston. She knows better than to nuke Tel Aviv or Moscow.
Remember, you're under a court order to take your medication.
Proof? cos media told you so?
VV Putin was never about money
Simple.
Kill the Neocons one by one and we have a safer world for your children, your family and you.
Better. Have them declared insane and discredit all of their philosophy. Then it's just the ravings of a lunatic.
Yeah but they, the Russians, have sweet ass bunkers built for them by their .gov and we have Obamacare!
So we have that going for us!
Well, there is that!
American individualism, build your own bunker.
If you can't afford the $60k that it costs for an underground one, then you can build a blast dome for a few hundred dollars. Won't protect quite the way an underground one would but it'd survive anything but a direct hit.
You need: A wooden stake, a bit of string, lots of plastic bags, some barbed wire, lots of earth and a couple of man days of effort. Possibly some cement if you don't have a clay soil or you live in a damp climate.
Walls need to be at least 3 feet thick to deal with penetrating radiation. 3 feet of packed earth will reduce ionizing radiation by a factor of 1000. In terms of strength, small domes are stronger than big ones.
"this town deserves a better class of criminal"
The Dark Knight - The Joker - Everything Burns - HQ
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qMkkfuSizc4 (1:26)
Eighty percent of my life was spent under the threat of nuclear annihilation. We came close several times in the cold war of hitting the reset button. We scraped by through the grace of God. Now once again we are warming up the war rooms for the grand game. All it takes is one sub off either coast to turn the lights out in this country. We nearly lost it all during the Cuban Missile Crisis. Next time we may not be so lucky.
Stay close to home and family,brother. I am not afraid.
mate, next time we will definately NOT be lucky.
1. US and NATO are increasingly more personal in their attacks on Putin and Russia
2. Both countries are becoming increasingly suspicious of each other
3. In the event of a computer hack, malfuction or other error, both sides will most likely assume it is a first strike and take the gloves off
4. Russia is facing an existential threat from NATO in Europe and the US/EU/Israel in Ukraine
This is not really a true cold war in the sense that there are no more rules or MAD strategy. It is dominate or be dominated; kill or be killed.
WOW! We have a lot of Dumb Fuckers in Washington. Everybody knows you Retards started the Wars in Syria and the Ukraine. So please, Shut the Fuck Up already....
As a sign of good faith and cheer to my fellow Zero Hedge Soviet comrades, I will gift the first 100 of you that respond with an authentic Russian one ounce silver bar. All I ask is that you provide me with your full name and physical street address (please, no P.O. boxes).
Ochen Shasti Pradznikov, Bratya!!
Mr. Crooke, such fellatio of Putin is most unseemly. Kim Philby would be proud.
With homoerotic fantasies contact your partner Lyashko.
And you are an expert on"such fellatio" because?
your freudian is slipping
Maybe it is time for Putin to execute my plan for the termination of ISIS.
Figure a way to lure the greatest number of ISIS Rank & File fighers, and Leadership in one
place. Nuke them with small neutron bombs. See if people think Putin and Russia are
paper tigers not feared after that. Who could complain, after all it was ISIS.
You have to consider how many orphans and widows would be left behind, in the US, England, Israel, Germany, and France. Probably Italy too. Then there is Turkey and the Arab states. A lot of people would be asking why their menfolk died in such a rash of "training accidents".
I think you have it backwards, Russia will get hit by ISIS in order to provoke them or Syrian civilians will be blown up using Russian munitions, or worse still, a Western ally will be sacrificed... Paris perhaps, maybe Turkey to get NATO riled up.
"Qatar has bought Russian-made bombs in Ukraine so as to accuse Russia"
Who knows what else is in store?
http://www.voltairenet.org/article189607.html
No, they'll force ISIS south into Saudi.
I've asked the question before on the TDB dot com - Alastair Crooke? You've got to be kidding me.
--Tyler, How about researching Alastair Cooke
The embassy acknowledged that Mr Crooke was leaving against his will but declined to discuss what his associates say were his growing differences with the Foreign Office over how best to bring an end to violence by Hamas and other militant groups.
Sources said that even after the latest suicide bombings and collapse of a seven-week ceasefire, amid what the Palestinians claim was deliberate Israeli provocation, Mr Crooke continued to argue that Hamas was ready to enter the political process and urged Israeli restraint.
https://wikispooks.com/wiki/Alistair_Crooke
I believe the correct parlance is that his govt employers believed that Crooke had "gone native".
I am not saying that this was a correct assessment. The UK's role in manufacturing the evidence that Bush relied on to go to war is now well known.
I've been struggling to find nonpartisan research articles comparing the powers of the American and Russian presidential powers. Some argue that structurally, the Russian presidency is more authoritarian because it isn't part of an "executive branch". On the other hand, since Truman, through Nixon, Bush II and beyond, the US presidents have quietly expanded the power of the US president far beyond those constitutionally proscribed.
Most articles ignore the Cablegate resources or even declassified govt information as part of their analysis.
Here is the proxy USA will set against Russia and Iran http://sputniknews.com/middleeast/20151215/1031748253/saudis-form-counte...
Read this to see that world war is on our doorstep.
I pray for Russia. I hope the US and its lackeys get thier asses handed to them.
An alliance of Arabs can be likened to a herd of cats.
Wait! Are you saying Rasputin wasn't a bad guy? --recalibrating--
He just wanted the Tsarina's snatch.
She just wanted her kid to quit bleeding.
Apparently, at least six of my fellows take themselves WAY too seriously. Might as well demonize Rainman. Sometimes, idiots can be very instructive, while simultaneously being very destructive.
The Rasputin quip was sarc- this one isn't.
Russia and Iran are at war NOW.... Saudi and Turkey will attack them, prob even Egypt...
What is really amazing if you think hard is that these conflicts we are experiencing today are legacy assets of Hitler and the Nazis.
A massive power vacuum was created post WWII which led to the cold war, nuclear proliferation, the Berlin wall, the wall collapsing, NATO, etc.
It's amazing. The US and allied powers united with the Soviet Union to beat the Nazis. We were allies. Now we are enemies. All of the things that have happened post WWII have been incredible.
I think the US and Russia being allies is far better than being enemies but breaching that line has proven to be a formidable process.
But it's incredible to think that Hitler is still even long after his death influencing global affairs. If he never came into power the world would look a lot different.
The power vacuum he left is truly incredible and the world's reaction to that vacuum. It blows my mind.
This is all a legacy of WWII and Hitler.
According to the joos, Hitler will be killing them well into the 22nd century.
I often think that the world would have been much better off had Germany won WWI. But, of course, we Yanks had to show up and break the stalemate.
Consider: A much more isolationist USA. A strong central power in the middle of Europe. No need for the Germans to help Lenin pass through on his way out of exile (to destabalise Russia with the Bullshit Revolution). No weird-assed Middle Eastern boundaries drawn up by those world-fucking Brits. The only real drawback is that those Ottoman Fucking Turks would have been left intact. On the other hand, though assholes of the highest order today, under the Ottoman Empire, the Turks allowed Christians, Jews, and Muslims to live in peace.
Oh, last and not at all least...
No Stalin
No Hitler
No Israel
Your view of history is a bit twisted.....if not Hitler, the Jews would have found another way.
never allies, but tools...
soviet was not a Russian construct
history channel is not history
blame germony?
you do not live in the world you think you live in