| The Looming US War on RussiaBy Finian Cunningham
June 22, 2016 "Information Clearing House" - "Sputnik" - Russian
President Vladimir Putin’s comparison of increasing US-led NATO
aggression towards Russia to the attack by Nazi Germany on the Soviet
Union is advisedly apt.
Putin was addressing the Russian State Duma this week on the occasion 75 years ago when the Nazi Third Reich launched Operation Barbarossa on June 22, 1941.
Nazi
Germany’s aggression, which led to the Great Patriotic War in which
up to 30 million Soviet citizens lost their lives in order to gain
victory against that fascist power, was at bottom an attack by Western
imperialism. As Putin reminded, this fundamental fact is often omitted
in Western commentary.
In
that way, the significance of NATO’s current military buildup – what
else is that but aggression? – on Russian territory is all too often
absent in Western media. And, by extension, Western public appreciation
is lacking on how sinister the unfolding situation is.
Russia’s
history over centuries is replete with examples of where Western
imperialist powers have tried – and failed – to subjugate Russia
with military attack from its Western flank.
It
is consistent with historical precedent that Putin should describe
“increasing aggression” by the American-led NATO military alliance
in the same context as the repugnant Nazi assault on Russia.
The
burgeoning US-led aggression towards Russia – in the form
of provocative political campaigns to demonize and vilify with false
accusations, economic sanctions and the spurning of diplomacy and
dialogue, as well as the expansion of military forces, including the
deployment of missile systems – is in a long, reprehensible tradition
of Western belligerence towards Russia, going back to, among others,
French emperor Napoleon Bonaparte and German Fuhrer Adolf Hitler.
This
congenital aggression towards Russia stems from the dynamic of the
Western economic system of capitalism, which in turns begets imperialism
as its necessary tool for expropriating natural resources and
subjugating foreign nations.
Russia
is not the only target of Western aggression, of course. But the
largest nation by land mass on Earth is and always has been a prime
target.
The
little-known historical record – at least in Western media – is that
Nazi Germany was fomented by American and British capitalism as a proxy
with which to vanquish the Soviet Union. The subsequent Western alliance
with Soviet Russia to defeat Nazi Germany was merely a cynical
damage-control move by the Western powers who were witnessing their Nazi
attack dog being muzzled and liquidated.
How
could anyone who has a sound understanding of history – as opposed
to the anesthetizing non-history common in the West – be not perplexed
by the current US-led military menace on Russia’s Western flank?
It should be a matter of deep concern that even Germany’s foreign minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier last weekdenounced the largest-ever NATO war exercises being conducted in Poland as “warmongering”.
What
underscores the alarm is that Washington and certain NATO allies are
pushing this confrontational agenda without the slightest discussion
in Western media or among the Western public. As President Putin pointed
out, people in the West are oblivious to the dangers of potential
global war because the Western media is committing a huge disservice
by not informing accurately on developments.
There
are any number of flash-points where NATO’s military could combust
into all-out war with Russia. The Baltic region, Eastern Europe,
Ukraine, the Southern Caucus region, or the Black Sea where US warships
continue to penetrate in violation of international treaties. Certainly,
historical precedent strongly suggests this geographical swathe.
As
the US presidential election swings towards Democrat contender Hillary
Clinton, that portends ominously for relations with Russia. It was
Clinton who as Secretary of State in the first Obama administration
in 2009-2013 plunged bilateral relations into the freezer and who set
the course for the present geopolitical tensions.
Of further concern is Clinton’s likely
selection to head the Pentagon
.
It is hotly tipped that Clinton will appoint Michele Flournoy as the
first female Secretary of Defense. Flournoy (56) is a prominent Pentagon
insider, with close links to the military and CIA. We can be sure that
this duo will keenly push a bellicose agenda towards Russia.
Only
last week, Flournoy made strident calls for increased US military
intervention in Syria. She wants to deploy large numbers of American
troops and openly use military force to topple the Syrian government
of President Bashar al-Assad.
Under Obama, regime change has been a covert enterprise through proxies such as Saudi Arabia, Turkey and a menagerie of terrorist militia. Under Clinton, the signs are that regime change in Syria will be made an overt military objective.
Flournoy is calling for the use of cruise missiles to hit Assad targets, including those of allied Russian forces in Syria.
“If
you bomb the folks we support, we will retaliate using standoff means
to destroy [Russian] proxy forces, or, in this case, Syrian assets,” she
told the military publication Defense One.
Flournoy
said the US should jettison the pretense of fighting terror groups, and
instead direct its efforts to remove Assad from power in Syria.
In
blatant contravention of international law and UN resolutions on Syria,
the probable next White House administration is declaring war on Syria.
Such a move is an unabashed aggression towards Russian strategic
interests and calculated explicitly with military strikes on Russian
forces in Syria. In short, a wider war with Russia.
Whether
the Middle East proves to be the flash-point of American aggression
towards Russia remains to be seen over the coming months. But one thing
seems irrefutably clear by now. Washington is already on the path
of war.
An
American war on Russia is looming. Maybe the people of the US and
Europe can stop that outcome by threatening political ad social revolt,
on the streets if necessary since the electoral process seems to be
stacked against the democratic will.
On
the solemn anniversary of Nazi Germany’s ill-fated invasion of the
Soviet Union 75 years ago, it is astounding that such horror seems
largely forgotten in the West. The criminal, reckless aggression
by US-led NATO forces towards Russia is a sign of the dangerous
ignorance and apathy in the West.
Russia
is once again facing a recurring historical pattern of Western
aggression. President Putin is correct in his contextualization
of NATO’s actions and attitude alongside the historic Nazi war on Soviet
Russia. Only those who have been brainwashed by banal Western
disinformation would consider such a warning as “alarmist”.
The
beast that is Western capitalist imperialism is salivating for war
again. The positions of war are aligning, and certainly Syria is
among the most volatile, especially if Hillary Clinton takes over as
Commander-in-Chief.
Russia will stand strong, as Putin firmly stated in his address to the State Duma.
But
this time around any war would involve a global arsenal of nuclear
weapons that has no precedent. This really would be war to end all wars –
and the planet too, as we know it.
In
the name of peace and humanity, the onus is on the Western public
to bring the warmongering system to an end – once and for all –
by slaying the beast that is capitalism and its monstrous twin
imperialism.
Finian
Cunningham has written extensively on international affairs, with
articles published in several languages. He is a Master’s graduate in
Agricultural Chemistry and worked as a scientific editor for the Royal
Society of Chemistry, Cambridge, England, before pursuing a career in
newspaper journalism. He is also a musician and songwriter. For nearly
20 years, he worked as an editor and writer in major news media
organisations, including The Mirror, Irish Times and Independent.
|
Sunday, June 26, 2016
The Looming US War on Russia
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