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Dividing Europe into "Old" and "New" .. from peace into confrontation and war ‼️
The Right Turn of the Party of FDR
Where are the true political observers here @EuroTrib? Came across this diary today .... Rumsfeld's already declared war in "Old Europe" ... the division became binding as NATO expanded eastward to the Russia frontier.
The "wisdom" from Washington
by techno Sun Jun 29th, 2008
I was recently visited by a cousin who spent his working life in the higher reaches of the USA's permanent government, including policy positions in the Office of Management and Budget and the Commerce Department. He's about seven years older than I and I once thought he was probably the smartest guy in the world. He has a law degree, is quite tall (198 cm) and very handsome. All in all, the kind of guy you debate at your peril
Me, I live in the provinces--quite near the geographical center of the North American continent and about as far from the rooms where actual decisions are made as is possible. He lives in the District of Columbia itself--a virtual war zone where full-time paranoia is actually a healthy survival skill. I live in freaking Brigadoon--a village so civilized I was actually spooked by how polite everyone was when I first moved here.
Our time together was short--which was probably a good thing because between some powerful pain killers I was taking to cope with some oral surgery and his attitude that Washingtonians have some sort of monopoly on wisdom, I started getting grumpy. I am not of the opinion that the folks who wasted the last eight years ignoring real problems but DID have the time to lie us into a couple of illegal wars were very close to wise. And while he probably considers himself a centrist in NW Washington, he has become, by any reasonable standard, a Economist-reading, neoliberal, right-wing extremist. Also not a good match.
At one point, I suggested that the ONLY way we were every going to be able to address the problems of Peak Oil and Climate Change--issues that surprisingly enough, have attracted his interest--was to bring back the guillotine to clear out the fools who had caused the problems and were unlikely to ever contribute to new solutions. Using his finest "tut-tutting" voice, he assured me that humanity had progressed beyond the historical stage of guillotines. Disgustedly I snorted, "Well, what else do you propose we do with the folks who lied us into two criminal acts of war?" I did back down and suggest that if historical relevancy was the big issue, we COULD ship the war liars to Gitmo instead of recalling the guillotine to service.
At another point, I decided to trash his intellectual base. Remember, the arrogance of the permanent government was once based on facts on the ground. Guys like my cousin could know enough to assume that his facts were just better than anyone else's in the room. He actually knows some of the players. He has access to intelligence reports. He has worked in the departments that collect the data. And most importantly, he has read the Washington Post on his daily commute.
Georgia: oil, neocons, cold war and our credibility.
by Jerome a Paris Sun Aug 10th, 2008
This is another diary critical of the West's position on Georgia. (Update: See also my new story: The warmongers lose another war.
Just as a bit of background, let me state here for the record that I wrote my PhD on the independence of Ukraine, and have thus studied how Russia behaves with its neighbors rather intensively. Following that, I worked for several years financing oil&gas projects in Russia and the Caspian; in particular, I worked on te financing of the BTC pipeline that goes from Azerbaijan to Turkey via Georgia (I wrote about it on DailyKos 3 years ago). Oil companies don't need the money: what they want is for other parties like banks to share the political risks associated with their projects. Which means that in turn, the job of a banker working on these projects is to understand those political risks. And it is quite obvious that the relationship between Russia and the Caucasus countries, including Georgia, was at the heart of my work.
But if you think I am just a "lefty European apologist of Soviet atrocities, feel free to move on and ignore this diary.
The Economist lies to rewrite history | 11 Jan 2009|
Trump appointee to stop arms for Ukraine, start peace talks
Who Is Keith Kellogg, Trump's Ukraine-Russia Envoy Nominee? | The Moscow Times - Amsterdam |
Kellogg, a retired lieutenant general and decorated Vietnam War veteran, was the national security adviser to Trump and Vice President Mike Pence during the president-elect's first term.
He would play a central role in peace talks aimed at ending Russia's nearly three-year invasion of Ukraine, should Moscow and Kyiv agree to take part in them.
Indications of his stance on the Russia-Ukraine war can be found in "America First, Russia & Ukraine," an April strategy paper he co-authored while serving as co-chairman of the Center for American Security at the America First Policy Institute think tank.
The paper argued that it was in the best interests of Ukraine, the United States and the rest of the world to "seek a ceasefire and negotiate a peace agreement with Russia."
Kellogg and co-author Fred Fleitz, former chief of staff of the National Security Council, blamed President Joe Biden's "incompetence as a world leader and his chaotic foreign policy" for the Russian invasion of Ukraine, which he called an "avoidable tragedy."
Many critics of military aid to Kyiv are concerned with whether vital strategic U.S. interests are at stake and if Washington is actually engaged in a proxy war that could escalate into a nuclear conflict, the paper said.
"They also see the need to establish a plan to end this war and not simply provide weapons for a conflict that appears to have become a long-term stalemate," said Kellogg and Fleitz's research report.
Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov's remarks at Ambassadorial Round Table Discussion, "Ukraine crisis: Global information space," Moscow, November 29, 2024
️The media remains a key battleground in the West's aggressive campaign against Russia -- Sergey Lavrov ️
He remarked that Ukraine has also become a Western testing ground for fakes and weapons.
#RussianMFA
Too damn similar to the 2016 rightwing coup d'état in the election campaign of Hillary Clinton, the DNC and old horses of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and PropOrNot ... unbelievably sad for progressive America ... the trap was set years earlier. Neocons and Bush-Cheney's War on Terror ... #WeAreNato 🔥 🔥 🔥
Cold Warriors, William Fulbright and Right-Wing Propaganda in the US Military, 1961-62
This article analyses a notorious episode of the early 1960s when Senator J. William Fulbright, then Chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, investigated the anti-communist propaganda activities of right-wing `ultras' in the US military. The episode is used to investigate the phenomenon of `cold warriors', those figures who associated their entire political identity with the `fighting' of the Cold War. One particular figure soon stood out as epitomizing the anti-communist paranoia that so worried Fulbright: Major General Edwin Walker. The contest between Fulbright and Walker (and their supporters in Congress) was not a political side-show, since it soon involved President Kennedy and saw Defense Secretary Robert McNamara testifying before a Senate investigative committee. It also marked a contest between an orthodox anti-Soviet position and the new, uncertain but more flexible world-view to be known as Détente.
Reaction Zelenskyy
Zelenskyy and the promise of NATO engagement
Zelenskyy invites NATO military to “unoccupied” Ukraine as a temporary solution for victory … the future is to a mighty NATO to defeat the extending Russian empire of KGB agent Vladimir Putin … security of Europe is assured with appreciation to the heroes resting on UA soil. The Ukraine needs to be completed and the Russian occupiers removed.
We Have Come Full Circle ☢️ McCarthyism and the Cuban Missile Crisis
