Neocons Dream of War with Russia

If you had any doubt that the neocons are still pulling the strings of the military-industrial complex, you are deceived.

Stratfor.com, viewed by many to be a mouthpiece for the CIA, has published their decade-ahead forecast, and topping the list is their forecast that Russia will "collapse" and that the US military will have to go in and decommission all their nukes.

You can read about it here.

Of course, an American-initiated invasion of Russia (and it is not conceivable that Russia, with or without Putin, is going to invite the US military in to take away their nukes) is not about making the world safer, it is about controlling Russia's vast natural resources, especially of energy.

It is not likely that China would welcome such a move either, no matter how much they might like to see Russia weakened.

The psychopaths running the USA inside the Washington beltway have a war in your future, if they have their way, a war that benefits Halliburton et al., but not you.

You can count on a Republican president to go along with the plan.

But Hillary? Yep. Wall Street and the defense industry are her two biggest donors.

Remember the words of Madelein Albright, Democratic Secretary of State, who, when asked how she felt about five hundred thousand civilian deaths in Iraq, replied:

"It was worth it."

For what, Madame Secretary?

The Deep State has told you what they plan.

"Preemptive" war against Russia.

Is that something you want?

Financial imperialism in the Ukraine

Michael Hudson’s masterful exposition of the forces of financial imperialism at play in the Ukraine, from both sides, came out a couple of days ago, but if you haven’t read it—it’s owrth the long read, as it covers the neocon/neoliberal “Great Game” strategy in historical context. Via nakedcapitalism.com

Michael Hudson: The New Cold War’s Ukraine Gambit

Waiting for that Nixon-in-China moment

The US strategy toward Russia and the Ukraine is following the neocon playbook: contain Russia, prevent the pan-Asian trade zone from happening.

At one time I believe we fought (another illegal) war in Vietnam to “contain” China, a vast country on the brink of abandoning old-style Communism well before the Soviet Union fell.

Nixon went to China in 1972, before the fall of Saigon. Deng beat out Mao’s chosen successor in the late Seventies and started liberalizing the economy in about 1980, just as the US was abandoning capitalism for right-wing plutocracy.

Subsequently trade with China helped the diminishing American middle class via inexpensive imports, even as it aided its diminishment by taking some of its jobs.

Wouldn’t it be nice if, instead of vilifying Gorbachev, Putin could take Gorbachev’s advice and permit democracy to flourish? And if Obama could see that Russia, like China, is a huge market with little sovereign debt that we are going to lose?

But we seem to be on the downside of a long wave in a time when confidence fails everywhere, a time, as Martin Armstrong points out, in which governments almost everywhere exist in a state of sclerotic corruption and codependency with the international plutocracy that seems ultimately to serve only the families of the plutocrats.

May the meek inherit the Earth on the other side of this. And meanwhile, pity the poor broke Ukrainians, caught between two mad plutocracies who want the black Ukrainian soil but not their debts and who are trying to figure out if a war might give them clear title.

Sanctions salami tactics

Plutocrats have a certain grudging respect for one another. Naturally, they would like to put each other out of business unless it impacted their own business adversely. So I conclude that Obama's sanctions are an attempt to isolate Putin from his plutocratic supporters (although perhaps supporters is too strong a word; Putin keeps his plutocrats on a pretty tight leash, just ask Mikhail Khodorkovsky).

But what if under the table the West is inviting Putin's plutocrats to join them, where the grass is greener and you don't have old Vlad busting your chops. We're not going to mention that we're going to give you a haircut on the way, but are you really ready for the rebirth of the Soviet Union? The London bankers must certainly be for it.

On the other hand, you have the Chinese promising big business... but China's biggest real estate investor is unloading everything as China replicates the Western real estate bubble and collapse....

It's tough being a Russian plutocrat these days. It's tough being a plutocrat anywhere, really, with all this talk that plutocrats are *too* wealthy (and are actually mass murdering their fellow humans with their insatiable greed by hording wealth and depriving others of health care, education and jobs).

Come to America! Come to the UK! Plutocrats rule! This is the subtext of what the Russian plutocrats are hearing.

A diplomatic solution in the Ukraine

US Secretary of State John Kerry meets with Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov in Paris next week to talk about a negotiated settlement in the Ukraine, even as some 60,000 Russian troops mass on the eastern Ukrainian border.

An optimal negotiated settlement, in my view, would be approximately as follows:

• Voting in May determines a federal structure for the country;
• West and Russia let portions that want to join EU join; NATO membership not an option;
• Russia is assured it can keep its navel bases in the Crimea (they already had them); while a second plebescite if necessary validates the Crimea returning to Russia; all such voting needs to be internationally monitored and squeaky clean;
• Russia provides as close to an apology as possible to the Ukraine for its invasion of the Crimea, accompanied by a large chunk of the IMF money that has flowed to it in aid to the federated Ukraine.

The costs of war would fall on innocents, the profits would flow to plutocrats on both sides. I hope Putin sees this. Russia is collapsing demographically (see this); it is an early-dying nation of drunks and Putin is holding on to power only by increasing domestic repression and fanning the flames of nationalism.

Should Putin invade eastern Ukraine before May as many expect, NATO will surely arm the Ukrainian forces, which can be described as rag-tag (Vice News has great video reporting from the Ukraine). This war would be pathetic in the extreme. NATO could send in drones, no boots on the ground. The Ukraine would be torn up for a generation. There would be further losses to Western banks, who have just coughed up a bundle to keep the gas flowing, and who, through London, have a huge interest in seeing the Russian and Ukrainian plutocrats stay whole. So I can only imagine that the banks are doing their best to sweet talk both sides into playing nice.

When the bankers don't want war, it's not likely to happen. When it does, the bankers generally try to line up on the side that will win. If the hawks in the West push for war and get it, Russia might collapse, and another Russian revolution might easily be the result--the Western banks can't count on a stooge like Boris Yeltsin this time to let them come in and loot. Anyway, the Russian plutocrats already have their positions, are being serviced by the London banks, and would probably be happy to run the country as regional war lords. If the West can turn the Russian plutocrats against Putin by telling them what a sweet deal they could have if Russia fell to the West, then Putin might find himself odd man out. I wonder if the Russian plutocrats still in the country can leave if they want to.

Would the plutocrats trust the Western banks and the CIA? Well, they did pretty well working with them 23 years ago.... But can Russians ever make democracy work, or do they need an authoritarian Father figure? The neo-cons might not care, so long as they weaken Russia for another generation.

Who or what would come after Putin? That is the question.

Putin collects his chips

With an IMF deal in the neighborhood of $18 billion on the fast track, and Putin asking for about $16 billion amount in payment for gas much already delivered and other obligations, it would appear that Putin is coming out ahead financially so far on his Crimean adventure.

While President Obama authorized the sale of some of America's Strategic Petroleum Reserve, oil prices seemed to up this morning when I checked.

Petrodollar alert

In case you missed it, ZeroHedge caught the announcement of a non-dollar-denominated energy deal between Russia and China:

Petrodollar Alert: Putin Prepares To Announce "Holy Grail" Gas Deal With China

China will sell US Treasuries to buy Russian oil, and Russia will stop borrowing from Western banks, is the general idea.