U.S. Warship Buzzed By Russian Jet: So What's the Problem?

The U.S. Neocons and their warmonger rabble never fail to mystify as well as enrage me.  They've merrily pushed their aggression to the Russian border - with the Ukraine- and yet brand Russia as the "aggressor". They invade the Black Sea (a U.S. Destroyer) which is directly within Russia's sphere of influence and then get all perturbed when a Russian SU-24 buzzes their asses, flying within 1000 feet.

Now, my friends, as per my usual approach, kindly mirror the situation and then laugh with me. IF - I say IF - a Russian Destroyer or other warship was sitting some fifty miles off of Key West, Florida, just what the hell do you think the Mighty U.S. (behind its "Monroe Doctrine") would do?  If you can't fathom the answer I will give you a clue:  they'd have every F-22 Raptor and Stealth fighter from MacDill AFB in the air and buzzing the Russians non-stop. As would be their right because the Russian warship would be within the U.S. sphere of influence.

But extend that to the Russians, if WE are intruding in THEIR sphere of influence, under some bogus pretext? Oh no!  The Russkies are only a "second class, regional power" (according to Obama) so they merit no sphere of influence. The Amerikkan sphere governs the whole damned planet, including the Black Sea bordering Russia  And so we behold the Pentagon whining, at least its parrot....errrrr spokesman....one Col. Steve Warren:

"This provocative and unprofessional Russian action is inconsistent with their national protocols and previous agreements on the professional interaction between our militaries,......I have difficulty believing that two Russian pilots on their own would choose to take such an action." "


Well, uh no, you dumb pudsucker!  Obviously the command came from higher up, and why wouldn't it? You invade their space, their sphere of influence and you think they wouldn't do a thing - especially with CIA planted thugs - taking a break from their torture routines - now trying to instigate an entry for NATO forces in eastern Ukraine.   The truth is that it was the U.S.S. Taylor in February and March that  already violated the protocol with the Russians which calls for all NON-Black Sea states to have their war craft depart after 21 days. The Taylor stayed a full ten days past its due exit date.

As Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has noted, in reference to the Montreux Convention:

"US warships have extended their deployment beyond the set terms a couple of times lately.”


So why should they not also be suspicious of the U.S.S. Donald Cook which entered Black Sea waters on April 11?

Again, it's because the U.S. miscreants, neocons and warmongers never want to see things from the other nation's perspective. It's always 'our way' the way WE see it, and devil take the hindmost. If this doesn't get under the skin of every REAL American, I don't know what the fuck would!  Because if it doesn't it means we're a nation of nationalist zombies prepared to grant our War state an endorsement for endless war. (Anyone raise your hand if you know another nation of zombots that did that: Clue one, it was in the 1930s. Clue Two: Third Reich. Clue Three: Nuremberg War Crimes Trials.)

Interesting side point: As Bill Maher observed on 'Real Time' last Friday, the less Americans knew of where Ukraine was located geographically,  the more they wanted some military action. As Maher put it: "Ignorance goes with the desire for aggression." (Maher displayed a map from a survey that showed at least a dozen idiot Americans placed the Ukraine inside the U.S. while another two dozen dummies put it in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean!)

Already the saber rattling, and clarion calls are being heard, from the usual neocon assholes like John McCain ('For God's sakes we gotta bomb 'em this time!') to the entrenched neocons at State, to the budding little warmonger (U.S. Ambassador to the UN)  Samantha Power.  Power actually got on her high horse and claimed that it was "obvious" Russia was instigating a new crisis by fomenting separatist discord in eastern Ukraine. Has she got her brain on backwards or what? It was Russia that called for an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council last night! Oh wait, wait....we are zomboids for believing that because it's all a put-on to justify invasion later! Or so the Neoliberal press and their hangers on would have you believe!

You see, the Neoliberal media and the Neoliberal Political class of poltroons wants you to remain deaf, dumb, blind and stupid so they can manipulate the planet to their own ends - including establishing a permanent global plutocracy. They want to do it via the use of leveraging debt  - say through the IMF and the banking system- or through the force of arms. They also want to intimidate any and all nations that might stand in their way, including Russia.

This is what the Ukraine crisis is all about and if you don't get that, you're not paying attention. It is indeed the last stand to be made for a bipolar world, as opposed to the unipolar one now on offer with the U.S. warmongers and "super power" ruling the roost, and driving all players into a debt -leveraged "free" market system which is anything but.

Recall here the words of author William Greider  ('Who Will Tell The People-The Betrayal of American Democracy', Touchstone, 1991), p. 401:

"It does not require great political imagination to see that the world system is heading toward a further dispersion of governing power so the closet dictator of the marketplace can command things more efficiently, from everywhere and nowhere.....

What is emerging now is a power system that more nearly resembles a kind of global feudalism- a system in which the private economic enterprises function like rival dukes and barons, warring for territories across the world and oblivious to local interests.......In that event, vast throngs of citizens are reduced to a political position resembling that of  the serfs....who followed church or nobility in the feudal system."

Serfs in a feudal system! This is the future the Neoliberal World Order has on offer for most of us  except the one percent.

Even as I write this the U.S. war mongers are pushing their luck and aggression to the hilt. Reuters actually reports US State Department Counselor Thomas Shannon — a senior diplomat and member of Kerry’s inner circle- talking about the possibility of supplying arms to the Ukraine government. Reuters actually quoted Shannon as saying:

"Obviously we are looking at that as an option ... but at this point I can't anticipate whether or not we are going to do that,”

This moron also had the nerve to say, with a straight face:

"From our point of view what we are seeing in a series of cities mimics what we saw in Crimea both in terms of the tactics and in terms of the people involved"

Despite the fact up to 25,000 Russian troops of whatever type, "identified" by uniform or not, were allowed according to a 1997 Treaty. See e.g.http://www.latimes.com/world/worldnow/la-fg-wn-us-intelligence-russia-ukraine-20140303,0,4657644.story#axzz2uy8lfu8m

So these dingbats at State can't even get their facts straight.

Not to be outdone, we had perpetual clueless parrot and puppet Jay Carney bloviating this afternoon:

"We're not actively considering lethal aid but we are reviewing the kinds of assistance we can provide,"

Let's hope this jerk's take is correct, and there is no "lethal" force or supply of arms being considered. We may all live to regret that! Let's also hope the inbred jerks at the State Dept. don't push their hands beyond what they have, lest the Russians call them on it!

See also:

http://www.smirkingchimp.com/thread/walter-c-uhler/55436/dear-nato-are-you-lying-about-russia-or-simply-incompetent

http://www.smirkingchimp.com/thread/mike-whitney/55375/the-obama-game-is-putin-being-lured-into-a-trap

http://www.smirkingchimp.com/thread/eric-margolis/55348/patriotism-is-the-first-platform-of-fools

And:


http://www.salon.com/2014/04/03/someone_teach_john_kerry_about_history/

"Putin Is Acting Rationally" : Col. Lawrence Wilkerson Again Brings Sanity to Bear

"They act as they please: here and there, they use force against sovereign states, building coalitions based on the principle ‘If you are not with us, you are against us.’ To make this aggression look legitimate, they force the necessary resolutions from international organizations, and if for some reason this does not work, they simply ignore the UN Security Council and the UN overall.”

Nothing in that key passage of Putin’s speech is crazy. He is stating the reality of the current era, though one could argue that this U.S. aggressive behavior was occurring during the Cold War as well. Really, since World War II, Washington has been in the business of routinely subverting troublesome governments (including overthrowing democratically elected leaders) and invading countries (that for some reason got in Washington’s way). - Robert Parry, Washington Post's Anti-Putin Group Think, on smirkingchimp.com

--
“This is an earthquake, and not a four-point earthquake,” a Russianist named Toby Gati told the Times Tuesday. Gati served in Bill Clinton’s State Department and now brokers business deals, correspondent Peter Baker tells us.

Absolutely this is so. It is an earthquake high on the Richter scale for many in the West, but for none more than the strategists and architects of  the neoliberal order -  the lopsided “globalism” in vogue these past couple of decades. For them, a defeat has come, an outer boundary tested and now requiring retreat.-   Patrick L. Smith, 'More Half Truths About Ukraine', on salon.com


Amidst the wasteland of Neoliberal American media, and even having to howl as the WaPo neocon editors yapped yesterday about "Russian expansionism" - there was fortuitously a pearl of sanity and reason amongst all the propaganda, jingoistic blather and bombastic mind rot. It came from Col. Lawrence Wilkerson (Ret.) appearing again on Chris Hayes 'All In' last night.

Readers may recall I have referenced Col. Wilkerson's earlier appearance on All In, e.g.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AP-MRxXWmHI

multiple times, noting how he described what occurred in Kiev as a "coup" and that it was engineered by the necons. He also stated flatly that if he were Putin he'd have done the same thing - e.g. move troops into the Ukraine-Crimea.  All this is coming from a long time military man who once worked with Gen. Colin Powell. He is now a professor at  The College of William and Mary and his voice is one that is sorely needed in these times when rationality and sober talk is at such a premium amidst the boast and hog swill of the media.

Last night it was refreshing to see and hear Col. Wilkerson again, especially given the day's usual empty threats, i.e. from Biden - lecturing Russia on its "false logic" and "dark path" (talk about 'pot-kettle-black'!)  and all the other crap coming from the neoon puppets (like John McCain) and  throughout the gov't.  The only downside is that Wilkerson had to share air time with a Ukrainian stooge and mouthpiece named Andrij Dobriansky of the "Ukrainian Congress Committee of America". (Granted, Hayes likely had been ordered to put this mouthpiece on by Comcast-owned MSNBC to "preserve balance:")

Hayes began by putting to Col. Wilkerson that:

 "This is it. Crimea is now Russian, if not recognized by international law. Certainly in terms of the facts on the ground.  So what does the U.S. do. Or is that just the way it is?"

Wilkerson responded, and immediately took note of a militant statement made by the NATO Secretary General, Rasmussen:

"I agree with you, And I have to say, Chris,  that watching Mr. Rasmussen, NATO' s Secretary General,  issue the statement you just played, reminded me he was the Danish leader who got his country -- Denmark - into the disastrous Iraq war in 2003.

This is not something that anybody needs. Not the West, not Russia, not the world, There needs to be an end to the polemics, as you showed from people like John McCain, an end of the passion, an end to the punditry, and a solution.

The solution is staring us in the face. Gordon Adams and John Mirscheimer and others have talked about it in editorials the last two or three days. Ukraine needs to be a buffer state between an alliance that Russia hates, NATO, and a country that NATO has a problem with, Russia. Funny that!

Ukraine needs to be the buffer state. Crimea needs to be exactly where it is, with Russia - where it's been for over three hundred and fifty years, and we need to stop the passionate statements and get down to business and work this out. We don't need a war."

Chris Hayes then replied, that people "did not necessarily predict or intelligence didn't do a very good job of foreseeing the fact that Vladimir Putin would send these unmarked soldiers into Crimea in response."

Wilkerson then reinforced the point he made in his earlier All In appearance:

"Chris, let me tell you that I can only imagine that John Brennan (head of CIA) who was too preoccupied with trying to spy on the Senate of the United States, missed this - because any fool - my four year old grandchild would know, that given the history of Russia -  Crimea was going to be just as important as Panama was for us in 1989-90. When we invaded Panama and removed their leader under the so-called Monroe Doctrine, which has been around for nearly 150 years.

Russia has its 'near abroad' doctrine. Call it what you will, it's what great powers do within their spheres of influence."


Chris then posed the hypothetical of extending the scenario to Donetsk and the eastern Ukraine, i.e. Russia wouldn't want hostile forces to take those either, so "Do you just let that play out the same way you let Crimea play out?"

Col. Wilkerson's response had Hayes raising his eyebrows:

"Well let it play out, exactly as say our blockade of Cuba has played out for us. We're isolated, Cuba's changing rapidly and the policy is an abject failure. I don't see any problem with giving Putin abject failure after abject failure, after all he's not presiding over a very healthy country right now."

Hayes then let the puppet Dobriansky have his two cents, which was pathetic compared to Col.Wilkerson's deep insights. Dobriansky, with a straight face,  claimed Russia was "operating as a rogue state"  and "operating in a world (irrational) just like North  Korea" .

Hayes then invited response from Col. Wilkerson, leading in with the comment:

"You seem to be saying Putin is acting - if not in accord with international law- then acting rationally as a great power preserving its sphere of influence- not as a rogue state.

Wilkerson acknowledged this take, asserting:

"Of course he's acting rationally! Let me just say that I object one hundred percent to what we do all the time in Washington and that is put a personal character face on every crisis. I don't care if it's Putin or Catherine the Great, this is Russia".

Dobriansky insisted, however, HE "will put a face on it" thereby demonizing Putin like the Neoliberal press-media and its assorted lackeys.

Hayes then aptly played a tape of a Svoboda lawmaker assaulting the head of state television in his own office, before forcing him to write a letter of resignation. (The video clip shows the neo-Nazi imp grabbing the state media guy by the necktie and pulling it, damned near to a stranglehold.)  Chris expressed concern that what is now a "small sliver of far Right parties" is going to grow but the Ukrainain puppet Dobriansky only responded that "I don't know about these characterization of Svoboda as far right, ultra right, all these different things about right wing and left wing" - which shows he's an ignoramus too claiming the "rhetoric in Russia is insane" ,

Wilkerson got the final word, after Hayes expressed concern of how "militarism in rhetoric and action acts like a tuning fork" and things can quickly escalate, get out of hand:

"I certainly feel for people in Ukraine who genuinely want a better economy and a better life but I will say that I have seen no leader that the Ukrainians have been able to produce at this point. It seems they are only interested in oligarchy.....So Ukraine's got to work out a lot of its own problems - these fundamental problems - itself.  And the best way to do that in my view - and to not excite this great power rivalry that might suck us all in - is to create a buffer state there. Recognize Crimea as being gone. Get the CIA out of Kiev. Get the NID, NED and the rest out of Kiev, and let the Ukrainians take that part of Ukraine and bring it back to some type of prosperity and stability."


So the solution is there, and in fact could have been predicted from my post on the game theory perspective: we need to have Ukraine be a 'buffer' between NATO and Russia. We cannot allow, nor will Putin, having NATO right at his doorstep with a toehold in the Ukraine, any more than we would allow an invader on our doorstep in this hemisphere.

Spheres of influence for great powers. So long as we disrespect Russia and refuse to acknowledge its great power status then we will also refuse to allow it to operate within its own sphere of influence. We will instead puff our chests and pretend to be the 'cops' of central and eastern Europe as well as the western hemisphere!

This is a prescription for war  - and not the type any of us wants, or that any nation can gain from!

See also:

http://smirkingchimp.com/thread/robert-parry/54891/washington-posts-anti-putin-group-think

http://www.salon.com/2014/03/20/the_new_york_times_manufactures_ignorance_more_half_truths_about_ukraine/

http://smirkingchimp.com/thread/robert-parry/54874/neocons-ukraine-syria-iran-gambit

http://smirkingchimp.com/thread/russ-wellen/54873/russia-still-addresses-conventional-weapons-gap-with-u-s-via-nukes

Geopolitical Chess - And What Obama and the Neocons Still Don't Get

As the Ukraine crisis continues to escalate, see e.g.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/03/07/us-ukraine-crisis-idUSBREA1Q1E820140307

There is little indication that either the U.S. neocons who want to  'checkmate Russia( via NATO expansion to its doorstep)', or Obama - one of their seeming 'Bishops' -  gets it. As the preceding Reuters news link shows, Vladimir Putin rebuffed Obama's stern warnings,  and again called to attention what he sees as Russia's interests- specifically in the Crimea. Also, as Col. Lawrence Wilkerson already noted ('All In' four nights ago) this is an expected response and only a fool or liar wouldn't grasp it.  The fact is the Russians have a strategic interest in the Crimea - given their long term Black Sea naval base- and they're not about to put it at risk because of the West's hectoring.

I am not going to belabor again why Obama, the U.S. and the Neoliberal West are all wrong on this. People can read or re-read the previous blog posts examining the deep politics of the issue - including over a dozen links explaining why Russia is correct in defending her interests - just like the U.S. would be if there was an incursion of Russian interests at her doorstep - say constructing a massive Russian  naval base near Havana. The U.S. has always invoked the specious "Monroe Doctrine"  to defend interests in the hemisphere (even going beyond sometimes, as in overthrowing elected democratic governments, i.e. of Jacobo Arbenz in Guatemala in 1954, and Salvador Allende in Chile in 1972), hence it's passing foolish to insist Russia has no similar mandates in its hemisphere- or at least at its borders!

You cannot have a unipolar, single empire world - I don't care how much the neocons  and their Neoliberal allies want it!

This lack of insight is partly why the U.S. and Neoliberal West (the 'New World Order') are losing at this game of geopolitical chess. They have been so spoiled and rendered soft by 13 years of fighting bogus 'wars' against a basically  phony enemy in al Qaeda and the "terrorists" (which they've stupidly elevated to another superpower)  and a series of occupations, that they've lived in a fool's paradise. Now, when confronted by a serious, formidable, real superpower - that doesn't use IEDs, but nuclear missiles, they don't know whether to shit or go blind. (Some neocons would argue Russia "isn't a real superpower" - brandishing their Amerikkan exceptionalist memes, but I say any nation that claims 3,000 ICBMs with nuclear warheads certainly is.)

Here is where the next move in geopolitical chess comes in - IF the U.S. and West are to save face and not made to look like impotent idiots - and it was delivered last night by Nina Khrushcheva on Chris Hayes' All In (much to the host's amazement).

First, some background. Very often in playing chess one finds that a limited option is available. Let's use the classic example of a 'fork' attack. In this case, the opponent's knight is 'forking' your queen and a pawn. The experienced chess player understands the queen is much too valuable to allow to be taken so moves her out of harm's way, allowing the pawn to be taken instead. By using this move, you preserve your main force and can still put up a good fight, but are not decimated.

In the case of the current crisis, and as Nina Khrushcheva pointed out to Hayes, Crimea is the 'pawn' and despite all the hair on fire screeching by Obama and the West about the planned referendum  - they must give it up because Putin won't.  It is the jewel of Russia and everyone who's studied Russian history knows that. (Evidently Obama doesn't, so needs to crack more books on it.)  Prof. Khrushcheva  made it clear President Putin doesn't want a full war, but he won't hesitate and there will be "a full blown conflict" if the West pushes its hand too hard.  Thus, as Prof. Khrushcheva put it, Kerry needs to stop his empty threats, so does Obama (including sending more warships to the region which will only inflame tensions) and give up the Crimea as a pawn.

This will be hard for U.S. and Neoliberal imperialists, given that with their phony "world backing" they believe they have Russia and Putin by the proverbial balls, but it is the only practical move available. Putin doesn't want a war but he will deliver a conflict that will make the recent terror "wars'" look like croquet matches,  if the West pushes him on this ( as the CBS Early show news reported out of Moscow this morning.)

Give up the pawn, then move on. Don't worry about perceptions, or 'backing down' out of stupidly held arrogance or the document NSC -68 which foolishly stated (as the basis for the U.S. to go to war or overthrow governments) as described thusly by Morris Berman[1]:

"the importance of perception, arguing that how we were seen was as crucial as how militarily secure we actually were. This rapidly expanded the number of interests deemed relevant to national security”.

The bottom line is that whether this crisis continues escalating will largely depend on whether the U.S. gets its global supremacy meme under control, and has the humility to walk away - giving up the pawn. Let's also bear in mind that all Obama's recent protestations as to the upcoming scheduled referendum are misplaced,, given he said that needs to be decided by the "legitimate Ukraine government" in Kiev. BUT ....as pointed out by many other commentators (e.g. Robert Parry, Normon Solomon, Eric Margolis) as well as yours truly - this isn't so. That Kiev gov't under neocon puppet Arseniy Yatsenuk is illegitimate and seized power in a coup instigated by the Neocons, e.g. http://www.smirkingchimp.com/thread/russ-baker/54599/ukraine-we-all-get-the-tyranny-we-deserve
Sadly, the signs are that Obama is being manipulated again toward a bad decision. As the Guardian put it yesterday:

"The escalating crisis in Ukraine has set off reckless missile-rattling in this country. As Harvard’s Stephen Walt tweeted on March 2: “Public discourse on #Ukraine situation hitting new heights in hyperbole. (‘New Cold War, WW III,’ etc.) Rhetorical overkill not helpful.” He may have been thinking of neocon Charles Krauthammer, who in his Washington Post column called for the United States to ante up $15 billion for Ukraine and send a naval flotilla to the Black Sea.

The same paper headlined that the crisis “tests Obama’s focus on diplomacy over military force,” quoting Andrew Kuchins of the Center for Strategic and International Studies decrying President Obama’s “taking the stick option off the table.”

Let us hope Obama soon wakes up and removes that "stick" from the table for the good of the world. To do so he will need to find the same courage John Fitzgerald Kennedy did back in October, 1962  - to defy his Joint Chiefs-  who demanded he bomb and invade Cuba. His defiance and choice of a less belligerent option  left us an extant world as opposed to a pile of radioactive ash. A similar outcome to the current crisis may hinge on Obama mustering the same level of pluck and self-confidence.

This time, Obama will have to face down the assorted hives and warrens of neocons (e.g. the National Endowment for Democracy, The Center for Strategic and International Studies etc.)  besieging him to act in a "gutsy" but most unwise manner, to show Putin "who's boss". We hope he can summon the same spine as JFK did to resist the generals in 1962.

See:

http://smirkingchimp.com/thread/eric-margolis/54677/vlad-the-bad-steals-a-march-on-the-west

Excerpt:

Disturbingly, US Republicans and the usual media propagandists are heaping blame on President Barack Obama for “losing Crimea,” as if any of them knows where it was before last week. John McCain and his sidekick Sen. Lindsey Graham have been demanding that Obama “get tough.”
Sure. Let’s mine Russia’s ports or blockade its oil and gas exports. Nothing like a nuclear war to show how weak the Democrats are. Thank god McCain did not win the presidency. The dolts at Fox TV can’t tell the difference between caution and cowardice.

Also:

http://www.smirkingchimp.com/thread/robert-c-koehler/54637/outing-the-deep-state

and:
http://www.smirkingchimp.com/thread/robert-parry/54643/the-we-hate-putin-groupthink


[1] Morris Berman: 2006, Dark Ages America: The Final Phase of Empire, W.W. Norton, page 118.