By Pepe Escobar
Meet the new (cold) war, same as the old (cold) war. Same same, but different. One day, it's the myriad implications of Washington's "pivoting" to Asia - as in the containment of China. The next day, it's the perennial attempt to box Russia in. Never a dull moment in the New Great Game in Eurasia.
On Russia, the denigration of all things Sochi - attributable to the inherent stupidity of Western corporate media "standards" - was
just a subplot of the main show, which always gets
personal; the relentless demonization of Russian President Vladimir
Putin. [1] Yet Nulandgate - as in US Assistant Secretary of State Victoria "neo-con" Nuland uttering her famous "F**k the EU" - was way more serious. Not because of the "profanity" (praise the Lord!), but for providing what US Think Tankland hailed as "an indicator of American strategic thinking".
Here's the game in a nutshell. Germany remote controls one of the leaders of the Ukrainian protests, heavyweight boxer Vitali Klitschko. [2]
"F**k the EU" is essentially directed towards Berlin and Klitschko, its key protege. Washington sees this going nowhere, as Germany, after all, has been slowly building a complex energy-investment partnership with Russia.
The Obama administration wants results - fast. Nuland herself stressed (check it out, starting at 7:26) that Washington, over the past two decades, has "invested" over US$5 billion for the "democratization" of Ukraine. So yes: this is "our" game and the EU is at best a nuisance while Russia remains the major spoiler. Welcome to Washington's Ukrainian "strategy".
The Ukrainian chessboard
US Think Tankland now also peddles the notion that the Obama administration is expertly adept at a balance of power strategy. To include Libya as part of this "strategy" is a sick joke; Libya post-Gaddafi is a failed state, courtesy of humanitarian bombing by the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. Meanwhile, in Syria, the US "strategy" boils down to let Arabs kill Arabs in droves.
Iran is way more complex. Arguably, the Obama administration calculates that through talks between Iran and the P5+1 - the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council plus Germany - it will be able to outmaneuver the Russians, who are close to Tehran. This assuming the Obama administration really wants a nuclear deal with Iran that would later release the floodgates of Western business.
On Syria, it's the Russian positions that have kept the upper hand; not to mention that Putin saved Obama from yet another Middle East war. As Syria was a Russian win, no wonder Washington dreams of a win in Ukraine.
We can interpret what's goin' on now as a remix of the 2004 Orange Revolution. But The Big Picture goes way back - from NATO's expansion in the 1990s to American NGOs trying to destabilize Russia, NATO's flirt with Georgia, and those missile defense schemes so close to Russian borders.
In already trademark Obama administration style, the State Department's support for anti-Russia, pro-EU protests in Ukraine qualifies as "leading from behind" (remember Libya?)
It comes complete with "humanitarian" appeal, calls for "reconciliation" and good against evil dichotomy masking a drive towards regime change. Abandon all hope to find voices of sanity on US corporate media such as NYU and Princeton's Stephen Cohen, who cut to the chase in this piece, stressing that the essential revelation of Nulandgate "was that high-level US officials were plotting to 'midwife' a new, anti-Russian Ukrainian government by ousting or neutralizing its democratically elected president - that is, a coup".
Here the "strategy" clearly reveals itself as a US puppet now - coup or no coup - instead of an EU puppet later. No one in the Beltway gives a damn that Viktor Yanukovich was legally elected president of Ukraine, and that he had full authority to reject a dodgy deal with the EU.
And no one in the Beltway cares that the protests are now being led by Pravy Sektor (Right Sector) - a nasty collection of fascists, football hooligans, ultra-nationalists and all sorts of unsavory neo-Nazi elements; the Ukrainian equivalents of Bandar Bush's jihadis in Syria.
Yet the US "strategy" rules that street protests should lead to regime change. It applies to the Ukraine, but it does not apply to Thailand.
Washington wants regime change in the Ukraine for one reason only; in the wider New Great Game in Eurasia context, that would be the rough equivalent of Texas defecting from the US and becoming a Russian ally.
Still, this gambit is bound to fail. Moscow has myriad ways to deploy economic leverage in Ukraine; it has access to much better intel than the Americans; and the protesters/gangs/neo-Nazis are just a noisy minority.
Washington, tough, won't give up, as it sees both the political crisis in Ukraine as the emerging financial crisis in Kazakhstan as "opportunities" (Obama lingo) to threaten Moscow's economic/strategic interests. It's as if the Beltway was praying for a widespread financial crisis in the Russia-led Customs Union (Russia, Kazakhstan and Belarus).
Pray in fact is all they've got, while the EU, for all the grandiose, rhetorical wishful thinking, remains a divided mess. After Sochi, Vlad the Hammer will be back in business with a vengeance. Nuland and co, watch your back.
Notes:
1. Journalistic malpractice & the dangers of Russia-bashing, RT, February 9, 2014.
2. EU Grooming Klitschko to Lead Ukraine, Der Spiegel Online, December 10, 2013.
Pepe Escobar is the author of Globalistan: How the Globalized World is Dissolving into Liquid War (Nimble Books, 2007), Red Zone Blues: a snapshot of Baghdad during the surge (Nimble Books, 2007), and Obama does Globalistan (Nimble Books, 2009).
He may be reached at pepeasia@yahoo.com. http://www.atimes.com/atimes/World/WOR-02-140214.html
American Hustle: The debt ceiling version
Pepe Escobar is the roving correspondent for Asia Times/Hong
Kong, an analyst for RT and TomDispatch, and a frequent contributor to
websites and radio shows ranging from the US to East Asia.
Published time: February 13, 2014 11:21
If only the US Congress was half as entertaining as American Hustle, the movie.
Well, for starters Republican House Speaker John Boehner is no Christian Bale. Not to mention Jeremy Renner. But a hustler he is.
Hardly anybody outside of the US remembers that Boehner started peddling his trademark hustle no less than three years ago. It was an extortion spectacular that could have been devised by the Mob.
Boehner threatened to bring the United States of America to default if the Obama administration did not submit to some heavy-duty spending cuts. As in, “Gimme what I want, otherwise I’ll burn the house down.”
Now it seems the hustle – like in the movie – has run its course (and not because Boehner was “intercepted” by the FBI). Mr. Speaker in fact intercepted himself, and brought a clean debt-limit bill to the US Congress.
The bill passed, basically because of Democrat votes (199 Republicans voted against Boehner). Even though he has warned them in advance, as in, “We’re not going to make ourselves the story,” Republicans went ballistic. And predictably, US corporate media went bonkers with “surrender” (as applied to Boehner) and “victory” (as applied to President Obama), as if this was the snowboard halfpipe final at Sochi (which American Shaun White lost to Russian-born Iouri ‘iPod’ Podladtchikov).
Now, also predictably, the Mob – as in rabid right-wingers grouped in outfits such as The Senate Conservatives Fund (SNC), Tea Party Patriots and Freedomworks – wants, what else, Boehner’s head. He committed an unpardonable sin: he “sold out” on small government and would not “stop the massive spending and debt that are destroying our country,” according to the SNC.
Follow the money
He may have the charisma of a leftover salad in the fridge, but Boehner is a well-informed hustler. He changed his game plan for two simple reasons.#1 (and the most important): to appease serious Wall Street money, which abhors political turmoil.
#2 is murkier. Boehner calculated that by extension he would be appeasing the Republican Party brand, which serves the Masters of the Universe very special interests, but has been hijacked by Tea Party-style fanatics. The problem, though, remains; even party leaders like Paul Ryan and Cathy McMorris Rodgers – who delivered the terminally boring Republican rebuttal to Obama’s State of the Union address – supported the insurgents.
In a nutshell, the hustle was bad for business. One just needs to check what Moody’s Investors Service managing director and chief credit officer, Anne Van Praagh, had to say about it: “A further lack of consensus would have potential negative consequences for the market and the economy.”
And the serious money, of course, was fully briefed. Those heavy-duty investors were keenly observing how US Treasury bill rates were increasing in February. The message: the US Congress would not be foolish enough to fail to raise the US borrowing limit on time, and keep those humongous $17 trillion-plus in debt growing and growing.
Although, as foolishness goes, with a US Congress popular approval rate of less than 10 percent, one could never tell.
Still, there’s no guarantee that the hustle won’t be back. After all, the Republican Party today is widely regarded by progressives across the US, and even enlightened conservatives, as the Party of “No.”
No to anything Obama wants or does, especially Obamacare. No to immigration reform. No to a national security strategy that makes a modicum of sense. No to all minorities, not to mention an absolutely crucial majority: women (as in rape is “legitimate”). This is essentially Angry Old Male territory. No wonder they’re doomed. They know they’re doomed. Yet they simply can’t stop looking back in anger at everything.
Still, with luck, the inevitable humongous funds, hardcore media manipulation and systematic peddling of lies, they have a chance of grabbing a Senate majority in the November mid-term elections. It’s easy to forget that despite the calibrated swagger, this is a lame-duck Obama administration.
The Obama administration can always mollify the Republican insurgents; for instance, by keeping the Pentagon budget apart from the budget sequester, just to let it grow and grow by the fiscal year 2016, when the Hillarator (Hillary Clinton) is bound to star in the second coming of Athena, now bent on capturing the White House.
Make no mistake; the show – and the hustle – will go on. And it ain’t over till the Angry White Males sing. Bored? Well, there’s always American Hustle on DVD, and Season 2 of House of Cards on NetFlix.
The
statements, views and opinions expressed in this column are solely those
of the author and do not necessarily represent those of RT.
[sidebar: Political Ponerology manufacturing WARS to feed an economy of historical misfits so the criminally insane can destroy earth again and again and again as Mass Murderers masquerading in the skins of reptiles.]
Jerusalem Kings Are Top? Family that is THE decider of THE 'system'?!
ReplyDeleteTime for changing the digital cover up into transparent fraud
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