In the aftermath of the brazen bombings of the Nord Stream pipelines, there is no turning back. The battleground has asymmetrically expanded beyond Ukraine to Europe proper. The lid on Pandora’s Box is off. Anything might happen now.
Moreover, the Washington establishment has so thoroughly demonized Russia with a barrage of mendacious propaganda for at least a decade that, with or without Putin, Russia has been economically and spiritually cut off from Europe. For the West, Russia is now a pariah and regarded as a menace.
Vlad Putin’s Russian Federation has become the second “Evil Empire” replacing the Soviet Union under the Washington-Neocon-Neoliberal-NATO scenario. The deluded promoters of this narrative evidently believe it. Irrespective of the noise coming from all directions, that perception is now the reality in Europe and America. Russia has definitely lost the PR war.
As Ambassador Chas Freeman sagely noted back in April, “We are witnessing the end of the post-Cold War period and the passing of the post-World War II and Bretton Woods eras as well as other historic shifts in the world order… Russia’s three-century-long effort to attach itself to the West has definitively failed. Sanctions are decoupling it from Europe and North America….”
Hence, the Washington Blob appears at this juncture to be at least half way along the path to achieving its two primary goals with our faddish, sanctimonious crusade in Ukraine. The Neocons/Neoliberals and Joe Biden are on a roll.
I would not be surprised to see officials dancing in the streets outside the State Department and Pentagon. It’s full speed ahead to final victory in carrying out their vendetta against Putin and Russia.
Even if it is ascertained that Washington sabotaged the Nord Streams—another wonderful example of “the rules-based order” don’t you think?—it will hardly matter. Washington follows the Tel-Aviv playbook. Ignore and proceed with further outrages.
Anything can be gotten away with, because the American public is too lazy to give a damn. The “rules-based order” means self-serving rules for Washington but different rules for the rest of the world. You’ve heard of Yemen? Iraq? Libya? Syria? Palestine? Etcetera.
To review, Washington’s pre-existing, pre-war goals were:
(1)Stop Nord Stream II at all cost from ever going into operation while concurrently putting Nord Stream I out of commission forever via strangulating sanctions which the pliable EU and Germany will go along with.
(2) Destabilize Russia with a never-ending proxy-war in Ukraine that will ultimately, it is hoped, result in regime change in Moscow. A kind of reprise of the fall of the Soviet Union. Russia goes for the high-jump a second time.
You have only to browse the eye-popping Rand Report Extending Russia (2019) to understand what is going on here. It’s a stress test. Overextending Russia is the goal. Rand provides a roadmap for taking out Moscow as a factor in world affairs, based on the dubious assumption that Russia is an enemy of America.
The fact is, Washington embarked on a campaign to make itself a bona fide enemy of Russia almost the moment Putin inherited the Kremlin from Yeltsin. Of course Putin eventually reacted. This is the upshot.
China is another enemy, whose turn may be next. Constant Sturm und Drang. No peace and tranquility. Do we need this? Really? Why? Surely there must be an alternative, non-adversarial policy which would get less people killed and inconvenienced.
I am wondering what happens if Washington does get what it wants and goal #2, regime change, actually comes to pass in the Kremlin. Putin is out. What then? There could be unprecedented chaos in a huge, multi-ethnic country with the world’s most nuclear weapons. Off to the races again.
You may recall that even the sage of the NY Times, Tom Friedman, worried about unintended consequences in his column of May 6th, 2022 entitled The War Is Getting More Dangerous for America:
“…we are dealing with some incredibly unstable elements, particularly a politically wounded Putin. Boasting about killing his generals and sinking his ships, or falling in love with Ukraine in ways that will get us enmeshed there forever, is the height of folly.”
But we are and have been enmeshed in this corrupt and bizarre country, thanks to Biden, Blinken and Nuland. It’s a prescription for endless war, a runaway express train we can’t get off. Note that Ukraine’s comedian leader Zelensky has just demanded that Putin be removed from office before any peace negotiations take place with Russia.
Zelensky no doubt reflects the thinking fed to him by high officials in Washington. Putin is a popular leader in Russia whose favorability polls are far higher than Biden’s. He is seen as the protector of Russians in eastern Ukraine, whose territory has just been incorporated into the Russian Federation in response to referendums.
Doesn’t Washington believe in self-determination? Evidently not for Russians in Crimea and the Donbass. And not for Palestinians in Palestine either. Just two glaring examples of hypocrisy.
The double-standard of Washington’s “rules-based world order” should be clear to all but the blind. It’s a joke. It is not worth World War III.
Reprinted with the author’s permission.
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