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Related: About this forumTRNN: What are U.S. Objectives in Weakening Russia's Economy?
PAUL JAY, SENIOR EDITOR, TRNN: Welcome back to the real news network. I'm Paul Jay.
In Russia, interest rates have hit 17 percent as Putin and his government tried to defend of the ruble, which has been devaluated by about 45 percent over last year. Lower oil prices are killing the Russian economy.
Now joining us to talk about the significance of all of this and what we called in a previous interview economic warfare, Larry Wilkerson.
Thanks for joining us again, Larry.
COL. LAWRENCE WILKERSON, FMR. CHIEF OF STAFF TO COLIN POWELL: Thanks for having me, Paul.
...
http://therealnews.com/t2/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=31&Itemid=74&jumival=12894
COL. LAWRENCE WILKERSON, is one of the smartest republicans out there. America would be wiser to listen to some of the things he has to say.
proverbialwisdom
(4,959 posts)newthinking
(3,982 posts)Response to jakeXT (Original post)
mtasselin This message was self-deleted by its author.
zeemike
(18,998 posts)And I felt that we played it wrong from the time the USSR fell...I remember Papa Bush saying we would have a policy review of Russia...and I felt that was saying they would do nothing.
We could have become friends with Russia and Russia and the US would have benefited from it.
But the neo cons believe in total victory and go for the jugular every time.
swilton
(5,069 posts)Last edited Sun Jan 4, 2015, 12:41 PM - Edit history (1)
More than three decades ago, distinguished American historian Barbara Tuchman emerged in American culture by popularizing history. While Tuchmans critically acclaimed Guns of August and Stillwell and the American Experience in China were recognized with Pulitzer Prizes, it is her March of Folly that seems so appropriate to provide us with contemporary lessons
..Surveying the recorded past from Troy to Vietnam , Tuchman explored the recurring phenomena of governments pursuit of policies contrary to their interests. Illuminating the folly with these cases: Prototype: The Trojans Take the Wooden Horse Within their Walls; The Renaissance Popes Provoke the Protestant Secession (1470-1530); The British Lose America; and America Betrays Herself in Vietnam Tuchman argued that governments carry out self- destructive acts despite the availability of recognized and feasible alternatives. It seems appropriate to argue that ending two and one-half decades of détente with Russia and moving closer to not just another Cold War but a hot war is the folly Tuchman warned about.
Other issues/major problems that the US and Russia need to work on - nuclear weapons proliferation.
P
For those who (would) demonize Putin, I say Russia could and has done a lot worse. After the 9/11 attacks when Putin supported the US War on Terror, the West responded by expanding NATO. Putin telephoned Condoleeza Rice to say that any pre-existing hostilities would be put aside while America dealt with the tragedy. In Russia following the September 11 attacks, television and radio stations went silent to commemorate the dead. Furthermore, Putin met with Douglas Feith for military consultations and facilitated the US use of bases in Uzbekistan for military supply and search and rescue operations. The raison d'etre of NATO was originally to block the then Soviet Union - therefore NATO's raison d'etre was no longer needed to exist after the dissolution of the Warsaw Pact in 1991. But NATO began the wars in the Balkans w/o UN approval in Bosnia (1995) and then Kosovo (1998-9). In 1999, Poland, Hungary and the Czech Republic joined NATO and then in 2002, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Bulgaria and Romania joined NATO.
pocoloco
(3,180 posts)World domination.
The PNAC is right on schedule, maybe a little ahead.
Note Col. Wilkerson's closing remark!!
Response to jakeXT (Original post)
uhnope This message was self-deleted by its author.
jakeXT
(10,575 posts)http://louisproyect.org/2014/07/20/robert-parrys-folly/
swilton
(5,069 posts)There is a Victoria Nuland who (wife of neo con Robert Kagan) is the Assistant Secretary of State for Europe and Eurasian Affairs. She, a neocon herself, is credited with orchestrating the February 2014 Ukrainian coup that ousted Viktor Yanukovych who was the democratically elected President of Ukraine. Nuland was heard in an intercepted phone call discussing Yanukovych's replacement. It was the February coup that precipitated a chain of reactions resulting in Russia annexing Crimea.
Response to jakeXT (Original post)
uhnope This message was self-deleted by its author.
another_liberal
(8,821 posts)All of us should listen carefully to what Colonel Wilkerson has to say.
My favorite quote:
"Why on Earth would we want to be doing this sort of thing?"
DeSwiss
(27,137 posts)Larry Wilkerson's partly right and one of the few politico's worth listening to (NOTE- he worked for Colin Powell so take that with a grain of salt). But it amazes me still, how people can be so detached from reality as to believe that everyone's financial circumstances are as precarious as our own. IT'S BEEN A FEW WEEKS! Not all countries live off credit cards that in-debts their children's and grandchildren's futures like we do and will see their fortunes crumble if they miss one payment. That's us we're thinking of, not Russia.
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These acts of war are a long-term strategy. A strategy that will take time that the US and The West as a whole, does not have. But it's in the playbook and we have idiots running things. So there. If anyone is being hurt by this it's the West and its people ultimately. Just ask all the French, German and Polish farmers whose crops had to be left rotting in piles when they couldn't be sold to Russia. Or you can go to Texas, Oklahoma and Louisiana where they've already begun laying oil workers off. The only positive in all this is that shale oil is not profitable at these prices. So fuck some tar sands!
But as usual the government's of the West use misdirection (old ''trusted'' politicos, like Larry here), and ''Their Media'' to confuse and redirect it's people's attention to the place where they want it. In much the same way it uses it's people's money as if it were their own.
No matter. The TRUTH will prevail in the end.......
Casey Research
Marin Katusa, Chief Energy Investment Strategist
December 11, 2014
Oil is not quite as powerful a weapon against modern-day Russia as one might think. By arguing that the slump in oil prices will finish off Russia just like it did the Soviet Union, Ambrose Evans-Pritchard, writing in the Daily Telegraph, is forgetting how far Russia has come since those dark days. It is true that the USSR couldnt cope with falling oil revenues and that Saudi Arabia is credited with helping to break up the former empire by dramatically increasing oil production from 2 million to 10 million barrels per day in 1985.
And sanctions could make it harder for Russian firms to access Western know-how, and ultimately affect Russias oil output. But thats only if they drag on for yearswhich is doubtful, given the price the EU is already paying. A cut in global oil supplyand stronger global growthwill likely rebalance the oil market in the meantime. A measure of Russias improved prospects is that the population is growing again for the first time since 1992. In fact, sanctions notwithstanding, Russias finances look pretty stable for now. Russia has only about $678 billion in foreign debt, which its been vigorously paying down from the high of $732 billion reached at the end of 2013. ([font color=red]The US debt to foreigners has passed $6 trillion, and its growing.[/font])
Its running a record-high budget surplus and a positive balance of payments. And its circumventing the dollar through trade deals. Even after spending $60 billion propping up companies starved of dollar liquidity, Russia has nearly $375 billion of foreign reserves. Although GDP growth has slowed from 2012s torrid 4.25% pace, its still projected to come in at 1%, no worse than 2013. Furious about being locked out of SWIFTthe Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication, which helps facilitate international financial transactionsPutin has also ordered the Russian central bank to proceed with building its own national payment settlement system as an alternative.
Then theres Project Double Eagle, which will enable trade partners to price oil in gold. That will allow users to move away from the dollar (and the euro), and conduct their business in something physical and more substantial than fiat moneyand Russias fellow BRICS nations (Brazil, India, China and South Africa) are cheering it on. So, perhaps theres method in Putins madness. Russia has not only substantially increased gold production but is stockpiling the stuff, doubling its reserves between 2008 and 2014.
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The reason the US is at war (and this is a war) with Russia now, is because it realizes that its role as World Hegemonic Leader is nearing its inevitable end......
jakeXT
(10,575 posts)http://www.forbes.com/sites/johntharvey/2012/09/10/impossible-to-default/
DeSwiss
(27,137 posts)- See? Easy peasy.....
Meanwhile scarecrows replace people......