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  • PC Roberts on the Ukrainian Question

    Defeated By The Taliban, Washington Decides To Take On Russia And China — Paul Craig Roberts


    Defeated By The Taliban, Washington Decides To Take On Russia And China

    Paul Craig Roberts

    The several days of organized protests in Ukraine are notable for the relative lack of police violence. Unlike in the US, Canada, Thailand, Greece, and Spain, peaceful protesters have not been beaten, tear gassed, water cannoned, and tasered by Ukrainian police. Unlike in Egypt, Palestine, and Bahrain, Ukrainian protesters have not been fired upon with live ammunition. The restraint of the Ukrainian government and police in the face of provocations has been remarkable. Apparently, Ukrainian police have not been militarized by US Homeland Security.

    What are the Ukrainian protests about? On the surface, the protests don’t make sense. The Ukrainian government made the correct decision to stay out of the EU. Ukraine’s economic interests lie with Russia, not with the EU. This is completely obvious.

    The EU wants Ukraine to join so that Ukraine can be looted, like Latvia, Greece, Spain, Italy, Ireland, and Portugal. The situation is so bad in Greece, for example, that the World Health Organization reports that some Greeks are infecting themselves with HIV in order to receive the 700 euro monthly benefit for the HIV-infected.

    The US wants Ukraine to join so it can become a location for more of Washington’s missile bases against Russia.

    Why would Ukrainians want to be looted?

    Why would Ukrainians want to become targets for Russia’s Iskander Missiles as a host country for Washington’s aggression against Russia?

    Why would Ukrainians having gained their sovereignty from Russia want to lose it to the EU?

    Obviously, an intelligent, aware, Ukrainian population would not accept these costs of joining the EU.

    So, why the protests?

    Part of the answer is Ukrainian nationalists’ hatred of Russia. With the Soviet collapse, Ukraine became a country independent of Russia. When empires break up, other interests can seize power. Various secessions occurred producing a collection of small states such as Georgia, Azerbaijan, the former central Asian Soviet Republics, Ukraine, the Baltics, and the pieces into which Czechoslovakia and Yugoslavia were broken by “nationalism.” The governments of these weak states were easy for Washington to purchase. The governments of these powerless states are more responsive to Washington than to their own people. Much of the former Soviet Empire is now part of Washington’s Empire. Georgia, the birthplace of Joseph Stalin, now sends its sons to die for Washington in Afghanistan, just as Georgia did for the Soviet Union,

    These former constituent elements of the Russian/Soviet Empire are being incorporated into Washington’s Empire. The gullible nationalists, naifs really, in these American colonies might think that they are free, but they simply have exchanged one master for another.

    They are blind to their subservience, because they remember their subservience to Russia/Soviet Union and have not yet realized their subservience to Washington, which they see as a liberator with a checkbook. When these weak and powerless new countries, which have no protector, realize that their fate is not in their own hands, but in Washington’s hands, it will be too late for them.

    With the collapse of the Soviet Union, Washington quickly stepped into the place of Russia. The new countries were all broke, as was Russia at the time and, thus, helpless. Washington used NGOs funded by Washington and its EU puppets to create anti-Russian, pro-American, pro-EU movements in the former constituent parts of Soviet Russia. The gullible peoples were so happy to have escaped the Soviet thumb that they did not realize that they now had new masters.

    It is a good bet that the Ukrainian protests are a CIA organized event, using the Washington and EU funded NGOs and manipulating the hatred of Ukrainian nationalists for Russia. The protests are directed against Russia. If Ukraine can be realigned and brought into the fold of Washington’s Empire, Russia is further diminished as a world power.

    To this effect NATO conducted war games against Russia last month in operation Steadfast Jazz 2013. http://www.strategic-culture.org/new...-cold-war.html Finland, Ukraine, Georgia, and neutral Sweden have offered their military participation in the next iteration of NATO war games close to Russia’s borders despite the fact that they are not NATO members.

    The diminishment of Russia as a powerful state is critical to Washington’s agenda for world hegemony. If Russia can be rendered impotent, Washington’s only concern is China.

    The Obama regime’s “Pivot to Asia” announced Washington’s plan to surround China with naval and air bases and to interject Washington into every dispute that China has with Asian neighbors. China has responded to Washington’s provocation by expanding its air space, an action that Washington calls destabilizing when in fact it is Washington that is destabilizing the region.

    China is unlikely to be intimidated, but could undermine itself if its economic reform opens China’s economy to western manipulation. Once China frees its currency and embraces “free markets,” Washington can manipulate China’s currency and drive China’s currency into volatility that discourages its use as a rival to the dollar. China is disadvantaged by having so many university graduates from US universities, where they have been indoctrinated with Washington’s view of the world. When these American-programmed graduates return to China, some tend to become a fifth column whose influence will ally with Washington’s war on China.

    So where does this leave us? Washington will prevail until the US dollar collapses.

    Many support mechanisms are in place for the dollar. The Federal Reserve and its dependent bullion banks have driven down the price of gold and silver by short-selling in the paper futures market, allowing bullion to flow into Asia at bargain prices, but removing the pressure of a rising gold price on the exchange value of the US dollar.

    Washington has prevailed on Japan and, apparently, the European Central Bank, to print money in order to prevent the rise of the yen and euro to the dollar.

    The Trans-Pacific and Trans-Atlantic Partnerships are designed to keep countries in the US dollar payments system, thus supporting the dollar’s value in currency markets.

    Eastern European members of the EU that still have their own currencies have been told that they must print their own currencies in order to prevent a rise in their currency’s value relative to the US dollar that would curtail their exports.

    The financial world is under Washington’s thumb. And Washington is printing money for the sake of 4 or 5 mega-banks.

    That should tell the protestors in Ukraine all they need to know.

  • #2
    Re: PC Roberts on the Ukrainian Question

    "The Geopolitics of Ukraine's Schism"

    Ukraine has been suffering a profound internal schism for some time now, one that is threatening to become one of those ugly civil wars that are occurring in more and more countries. The boundaries of present-day Ukraine include an east-west cleavage that is linguistic, religious, economic, and cultural, each side being close to 50% of the total.

    The present government (said to be dominated by the eastern half) is accused in public demonstrations by the other side of corruption and authoritarian rule. No doubt this is true, at least in part. It is not however clear that a government dominated by the western half would be less corrupt and less authoritarian. In any case, the issue is posed internally in geopolitical terms: Should Ukraine be part of the European Union, or should it knit strong ties with Russia?

    It is therefore perhaps unexpected that YouTube is now featuring a tape in which the U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs, Victoria Nuland, is shown discussing U.S. political strategy vis-à-vis Ukraine with the U.S. Ambassador. In this tape, Ms. Nuland poses the issue as a geopolitical struggle between the United States and Europe (and more particularly Germany). She is caught in a diatribe, in which she says "Fuck the Europeans" - the Europeans, not the Russians.

    Before we proceed with the analysis, let us take a moment to offer generic sympathy to all important people these days. In the last few years, there has been much discussion about the loss of privacy in communications. But this discussion has always been about little people subject to spying by governments, in particular by the U.S. National Security Agency. It seems however that this loss of privacy now extends to people like Ms. Nuland. There is much speculation about exactly who bugged her conversation and made it go viral on YouTube. The point is that poor Ms. Nuland is no longer safe in saying anything - or at least anything that she wouldn't want the whole world to know.

    Let us take a look at who is Victoria Nuland. She is a surviving member of the neocon clique that surrounded George W. Bush, in whose government she served. Her husband, Robert Kagan, is one of the best-known ideologues of the neocon group. It is an interesting question what she is doing in such a key position in the Department of State of an Obama presidency. The least he and U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry were supposed to do was to remove the neocons from such a role.


    Now, let us recall what exactly was the neocon line on Europe during the Bush days. The then U.S. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld famously talked of France and Germany as the "old Europe" in contrast to what he saw as the "new Europe" - that is, countries who shared Rumsfeld's views on the then imminent invasion of Iraq. The new Europe was for Rumsfeld Great Britain especially and east-central Europe, the countries formerly part of the Soviet bloc. Ms. Nuland seems to have the same perception of Europe.


    Let me therefore propose that Ukraine is merely a convenient excuse or proxy for a larger geopolitical division that has nothing whatsoever to do with its internal schism. What haunts the Nulands of this world is not a putative "absorption" of Ukraine by Russia - an eventuality with which she could live. What haunts her and those who share her views is a geopolitical alliance of Germany/France and Russia.

    The nightmare of a Paris-Berlin-Moscow axis has receded a little bit since its acme in 2003, when U.S. efforts to have the U.N. Security Council endorse the U.S. invasion of Iraq in 2003 were defeated by France and Germany.
    The nightmare has receded a bit but lurks there just beneath the surface, and for good reason. Such an alliance makes geopolitical sense for Germany/France and Russia. And in geopolitics, what makes sense is a constraint that insisting on ideological differences can affect very little. Geopolitical choices may be tweaked by the individuals in power, but the pressure of long-term national interests remains strong.

    Why does a Paris-Berlin-Moscow axis make sense? There are good reasons. One is the U.S. turn towards a Pacific-centrism replacing its long history of Atlantic-centrism. Russia's nightmare, and Germany's as well, is not a U.S.-China war but a U.S.-China alliance (one that would include Japan and Korea as well). Germany's only way of diminishing this threat to its own prosperity and power is an alliance with Russia. And her policy towards Ukraine shows precisely the priority she gives to resolving European issues by including rather than excluding Russia.


    As for France, Hollande has been trying to woo the United States by acting as though France were part of the "new Europe." But Gaullism has been since 1945 the basic geopolitical stance of France. Such supposedly non-Gaullist presidents like Mitterrand and Sarkozy in fact pursued Gaullist policies. And Hollande will soon find he has little choice but to be a Gaullist. Gaullism is not "leftism" but rather the sense that it is the United States that threatens a continuing geopolitical role for France, and France has to defend its interests by an opening to Russia in order to counterbalance the power of the United States.

    Who will win in this game? It remains to be seen. But Victoria Nuland seems a little like King Canute commanding the seas to recede. And the poor Ukrainians may find that they are forced to bind up their internal wounds whether they want to or not.
    by

    Immanuel Walle
    rstein

    Comment


    • #3
      Re: PC Roberts on the Ukrainian Question

      file under cognitive dissonance . . .

      It is no secret that Barack Obama is one of the supreme illusionists of modern times. The disconnect between his words and his deeds is so profound as to be almost sublime, far surpassing the crude obfuscations of the Bush-Cheney gang. Their projections of unreality were more transparent, and in any case were merely designed to put a little lipstick on the pig of policies they were openly pushing (militarism, tax cuts for the rich, etc.). Indeed, the Bushists delivered their lines like bored performers at the end of a long run, not caring whether they were believed or not — just as long as they got what they wanted.

      But Obama has taken all this to another level. He is a consummate performer, striving to “inhabit” the role and mouthing his lines as if they make sense and convey emotional truth. He is not just gilding his open agenda with some slap-dash lies; posing as a compassionate, progressive, anti-elitist peacemaker, he is masking a hidden agenda with a vast array of artifice, expending enormous effort to generate an alternate world that does not exist.

      Take his astonishing attack on Vladimir Putin for “interfering” in Ukraine. That Obama could make this charge with a straight face — days after his own agents had been exposed (in the infamous “Fuck the EU” tape) nakedly interfering in Ukraine, trying to overthrow a democratically elected government and place their own favorites in charge — was brazen enough. But in accusing Putin of doing exactly what the Americans were doing in Ukraine, Obama also fabricated yet another alternate world.

      CHRIS FLOYD


      Comment


      • #4
        Re: PC Roberts on the Ukrainian Question

        Originally posted by don View Post
        file under cognitive dissonance . . .

        It is no secret that Barack Obama is one of the supreme illusionists of modern times. The disconnect between his words and his deeds is so profound as to be almost sublime, far surpassing the crude obfuscations of the Bush-Cheney gang. Their projections of unreality were more transparent, and in any case were merely designed to put a little lipstick on the pig of policies they were openly pushing (militarism, tax cuts for the rich, etc.). Indeed, the Bushists delivered their lines like bored performers at the end of a long run, not caring whether they were believed or not — just as long as they got what they wanted.

        But Obama has taken all this to another level. He is a consummate performer, striving to “inhabit” the role and mouthing his lines as if they make sense and convey emotional truth. He is not just gilding his open agenda with some slap-dash lies; posing as a compassionate, progressive, anti-elitist peacemaker, he is masking a hidden agenda with a vast array of artifice, expending enormous effort to generate an alternate world that does not exist.

        Take his astonishing attack on Vladimir Putin for “interfering” in Ukraine. That Obama could make this charge with a straight face — days after his own agents had been exposed (in the infamous “Fuck the EU” tape) nakedly interfering in Ukraine, trying to overthrow a democratically elected government and place their own favorites in charge — was brazen enough. But in accusing Putin of doing exactly what the Americans were doing in Ukraine, Obama also fabricated yet another alternate world.

        CHRIS FLOYD

        Sorry...I just don't see Obama being that brilliant. He wants people to love him, and so he courts them, no matter the problem, he can find an audience, and a reason for his actions to suit that audience. His handlers actually are driving him to a lot of ridiculously opposing statements, very close in time.

        But who in the media are actually keeping track of what Obama says about what...and for how long? They purposefully have no memory past a few days.

        Still, I don't watch Obama if I can help it...too much dissonance on all levels to be amusing. One is continuously aware of how much the man lies.

        Comment


        • #5
          Re: PC Roberts on the Ukrainian Question

          Obama won the advertising award of the year as a brand following his first election.

          Nuf said . . .

          Comment


          • #6
            Re: PC Roberts on the Ukrainian Question

            Ukraine is hard to understand. I doubt Roberts has it right. A million people in the streets for 4 months because of the CIA? Anyone who can link to good analysis, please do...Hard to know what to believe.

            http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinio...d88_print.html

            Comment


            • #7
              Re: PC Roberts on the Ukrainian Question

              Originally posted by Thailandnotes View Post
              Ukraine is hard to understand. I doubt Roberts has it right. A million people in the streets for 4 months because of the CIA? Anyone who can link to good analysis, please do...Hard to know what to believe.

              http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinio...d88_print.html
              Here is a garden variety, neutral POV place to start:
              http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Covert_...change_actions

              Here's a more opinionated yet readable case study of how it's done:
              http://williamblum.org/chapters/kill...lgaria-albania
              Last edited by Woodsman; February 20, 2014, 10:34 PM.

              Comment


              • #8
                Re: PC Roberts on the Ukrainian Question

                Originally posted by Woodsman View Post
                Here is a garden variety, neutral POV place to start:
                http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Covert_...change_actions

                Here's a more opinionated yet readable case study of how it's done:
                http://williamblum.org/chapters/kill...lgaria-albania
                Have no problem believing any of the above.

                Had read through http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orange_Revolution

                and other pieces. I was looking for current video footage of insiders explaining the how and why of where the Ukraine got where it is.

                Comment


                • #9
                  Re: PC Roberts on the Ukrainian Question

                  Originally posted by Woodsman View Post
                  Here is a garden variety, neutral POV place to start:
                  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Covert_...change_actions

                  Here's a more opinionated yet readable case study of how it's done:
                  http://williamblum.org/chapters/kill...lgaria-albania
                  I personally witnessed one of these CIA operations (Chile 1971-1973) which opened the way to the bloody coup by general Pinochet.
                  Of course, CIA can't create the local forces which will tend to "regime change". But it finances, coordinates and then translate the powerful Washington administration to the coup.
                  The same is now happening in Venezuela.
                  There is local forces in play, certainly, but CIA is operating more or less covertly to foment, finance and unite, them.
                  Of the pieces offered by Don I think the one by PCR is the more accurate.
                  Wallerstein, in my opinion, takes what it is a lose expression by Nuland to create a whole geopolitical scenario.
                  Hollande is nothing but a puppet of Washington, just trying to be "más realista que el rey"...as we say in Spanish.
                  In Ukraine's history the Western part of it was the only place where the Nazis were able to create a local loyal force to fight against the Soviet Union.
                  The hard, violent, militarized opposition is now (that taken from the NYT) headed by neonazis.
                  Then there is a "moderate" opposition which tends to the same geopolitical agenda.
                  The underlying factor: a hard economic crisis.

                  Comment


                  • #10
                    Re: PC Roberts on the Ukrainian Question

                    In Ukraine's history the Western part of it was the only place where the Nazis were able to create a local loyal force to fight against the Soviet Union.
                    Boxing note: Presidential aspirant Vitali Volodymyrovych Klitschko, prominent in the ongoing conflict, spent his professional career in Germany, where he was, and is, wildly popular.

                    Comment


                    • #11
                      Re: PC Roberts on the Ukrainian Question

                      Originally posted by Thailandnotes View Post
                      I was looking for current video footage of insiders explaining the how and why of where the Ukraine got where it is.

                      Right, sorry. I was pretty impressed by the scope of BBC's coverage. The timeline helps with context and background, I think.

                      Comment


                      • #12
                        Re: PC Roberts on the Ukrainian Question

                        Originally posted by Woodsman View Post
                        Right, sorry. I was pretty impressed by the scope of BBC's coverage. The timeline helps with context and background, I think.
                        I'm wondering if you can link to a specific BBC story. When I type in "BBC Ukraine," there are pages of stories to choose from, most having to do with events in the last 48 hours.

                        The BBC has been off my radar for a while. They have gotten the Thai political situation wrong so often. Thai friends (secretaries, teachers, etc) who have taken a day off without pay, risking their jobs to travel hours to protest the amnesty bill, have written the BBC decrying their shallow understanding of what's going on here.

                        Which gets to my bewilderment...Who you going to trust?

                        Along those lines...

                        http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/blogs-trending-26272546

                        "But some of the comments on the video are critical, calling it one-sided "propaganda" which focuses on violence by the police - and mentions nothing of violence by protesters themselves. The woman in the video is a student called Yulia, who has been involved with the protests from the start. Her message is simple, but the production is slick. It was edited and uploaded by an award-winning US filmmaker, Ben Moses, who met Yulia in Ukraine as part of a documentary he is making about protest movements around the world."

                        Comment


                        • #13
                          Re: PC Roberts on the Ukrainian Question

                          Shades of the cold war.

                          Russia is trying to influence in it's former Soviet Union states. It had a pro Russian Ukrainian leader, but he appear deposed and the pro western elements are in control.

                          Readers should study Russia's horrible treatment of the Ukraine from 1928 to 1940.


                          "Collectivization especially targeted Ukraine, "the breadbasket of the Soviet Union," which clung stubbornly to its own national identity and preference for village-level communal landholdings. In 1932-33, Stalin engineered a famine (by massively raising the grain quota that the peasantry had to turn over to the state); this killed between six and seven million people and broke the back of Ukrainian resistance. The Ukrainian famine has only recently been recognized as one of the most destructive genocides of the twentieth century (see Robert Conquest, The Harvest of Sorrow, and the Web resources compiled by The Ukrainian Weekly)"

                          http://www.gendercide.org/case_stalin.html

                          The Ukraine is dependent on Russia for gas supplies, which complicates the desire for Ukraine to shift towards a pro European stance.

                          Meanwhile the protests against the repressive regime in Venezuela are increasing. The internet and word of mouth has increased the chances for open revolt against repressive governments.

                          Poor economic conditions in many parts of the globe have increased dissatisfaction with incumbent leaders.

                          Of course the U.S. and other western governments are stoking the flames of protest, both out of favoring democratic governments as well as their own interests. There is no surprise that the CIA might have some involvement.

                          However, few want to trust Russia based on past history.

                          Roberts also spoke of China:

                          http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/2/78920...#axzz2u1SsIoBt

                          http://www.theguardian.com/world/201...ama-dalai-lama

                          Comment


                          • #14
                            Re: PC Roberts on the Ukrainian Question

                            Originally posted by PC Roberts View Post
                            Defeated By The Taliban, Washington Decides To Take On Russia And China — Paul Craig Roberts


                            Defeated By The Taliban, Washington Decides To Take On Russia And China

                            Paul Craig Roberts

                            The several days of organized protests in Ukraine are notable for the relative lack of police violence. Unlike in the US, Canada, Thailand, Greece, and Spain, peaceful protesters have not been beaten, tear gassed, water cannoned, and tasered by Ukrainian police. Unlike in Egypt, Palestine, and Bahrain, Ukrainian protesters have not been fired upon with live ammunition. The restraint of the Ukrainian government and police in the face of provocations has been remarkable. Apparently, Ukrainian police have not been militarized by US Homeland Security.

                            ...
                            Well that didn't last long, did it...

                            Comment


                            • #15
                              Re: PC Roberts on the Ukrainian Question

                              Martin Armstrong has been blogging about the Ukraine since November. He's calling the Ukraine the beginning or flashpoint of a 'Cycle of War' that he predicts to start in 2014.

                              From January 22:

                              The Shocking Truth in Ukraine Mainstream Will Not Report – There is a Chance to be Free At Last

                              .. There are two directions historically that unfold in this process and we need to pay close attention to Ukraine for here is the fate of Europe and the United States in a petri dish. The world economy crashes always from the peripheral regions and it spreads back to the core. Thus, we are seeing this patter in Ukraine and rising civil unrest in Europe. This trend will eventually hit the USA starting as early as 2016.

                              The second trend is when a nation is moving into revolutionary collapse internally. Here we find the division of loyalties emerges. The Ukrainian protesters need the strength and might of the police against the mercenaries. If they can gather the support of the police and military against Yanukovich, then they stand a chance to take their country to real freedom.

                              Be kinder than necessary because everyone you meet is fighting some kind of battle.

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