Autor: João

Zbig

Por | 28 maio, 2017 | , , , |

THE SVENGALI OF JIMMY CARTER’S PRESIDENCY IS DEAD…   John Helmer May 28, 2017 Former President Jimmy Carter, who employed Brzezinski as his National Security Advisor between 1977 and 1981, the only high official post Brzezinski reached, said he “helped me set vital foreign policy goals, was a source of stimulation for the departments of defense and state, and everyone valued his opinion.”  Of Carter’s three claims, only the first is true; the second is ironic hyperbole; the third is completely false. If Carter cannot tell the truth now about Brzezinski, after having 36 years to reflect on it, Carter reveals the principal source of Brzezisnki’s power, when he exercised it.   For Carter was no innocent ventriloquized by the evil Svengali (lead image, left), as in the original Svengali tale. Carter was simply more mendacious than Brzezinski, and is entirely to blame for doing what Brzezinski told him to do.   Brzezinski was an obsessive Russia-hater from the beginning to the end. That led to the monumental failures of Carter’s term in office;  the hatreds Brzezinski released had an impact which continues to be catastrophic for the rest of the world.   To Brzezinski goes the credit for starting the organization, financing and armament of the mujahideen, the Islamic fundamentalists who have metastasized —  with US money and arms still —  into Islamic terrorist armies operating far from Afghanistan and...

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Zbig

Por | 28 maio, 2017 | , , |

A rook exits the global chessboard   M. K. Bhadrakumar May 28, 2017   Zbigniew Brzezinski, who died Friday, Henry Kissinger and Madeline Albright have been three foreign-born scholars who significantly influenced American policies and impacted global affairs through the past half century. For better or worse, Brzezinski and Kissinger were grand strategists too. Both left a trail of influence through their protégés. Brzezinski was an indefatigable ‘Cold Warrior’ and was in danger of becoming an anachronism. The leitmotif of his “doctrine” was his virulent anti-Russian outlook, which could have been due to his Polish origin. (Albright, another hardliner on Russia, was Czech.) He and Albright – apart from Strobe Talbott, who served as deputy state secretary in Bill Clinton administration – were instrumental in burying whatever prospects existed for a historic rapprochement between the West and Boris Yeltsin’s Russia (which the latter was keenly seeking). Clinton’s decision to expand NATO to the former Warsaw Pact territory was the turning point. (George Kennan, the architect of the Cold War, was prophetic in warning Clinton that such a move would be a catastrophic blunder and shut the door on any prospect of friendly ties with Russia.) Plainly put, Brzezinski and Albright ensured that Cold War flames were kept burning in the post-cold war era – although Ronald Reagan or George HW Bush were open to accommodating Russia. Kissinger, who advocated...

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Cold War

Por | 27 maio, 2017 | , , |

The week that ushered in new Cold War   M. K. Bhadrakumar Jul. 29, 2014   If future historians were to pinpoint the transition when the post-cold war era morphed into the new Cold War, they are bound to take a close look at this week. The Barack Obama administration is in a triumphalist mood after the success, finally, in rallying the US’s major European allies — UK, France, Germany and Italy — behind its concerted strategy to isolate Russia from Europe and impose biting sanctions against it. Obama could have made a stirring Iron Curtain speech this week — but for the mess-up in Libya, Iraq, Syria, Afghanistan, et al, and the horrendous massacre in Gaza that has marred his own reputation, and, besides, don’t forget, he’s a Nobel and is not supposed to give a war cry. All the same, Obama’s video teleconference Monday with his European counterparts signifying the agreement on “coordinated sanctions measures on Russia” suggests beyond doubt that the post-cold war era is ending. Within the next “12-48 hours” Brussels will be announcing new sanctions against Moscow based on the US blueprint involving a broad package of measures aimed at bringing the Russian economy to its heels. Washington will thereupon announce its own sanctions against Russia. These so-called Tier Three sanctions are expected to hit Russia’s financial institutions, arms deals and energy exploration technology. The Russian...

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War in Syria

Por | 25 maio, 2017 | , , |

A multi-level analysis of the US cruise missile attack on Syria   The Saker Apr. 11, 2017   The latest US cruise missile attack on the Syrian airbase is an extremely important event in so many ways that it is important to examine it in some detail.  I will try to do this today with the hope to be able to shed some light on a rather bizarre attack which will nevertheless have profound consequences.  But first, let’s begin by looking at what actually happened. The pretext: I don’t think that anybody seriously believes that Assad or anybody else in the Syrian government really ordered a chemical weapons attack on anybody.  To believe that it would require you to find the following sequence logical: first, Assad pretty much wins the war against Daesh which is in full retreat.  Then, the US declares that overthrowing Assad is not a priority anymore (up to here this is all factual and true).  Then, Assad decides to use weapons he does not have.  He decides to bomb a location with no military value, but with lots of kids and cameras.  Then, when the Russians demand a full investigation, the Americans strike as fast as they can before this idea gets any support.  And now the Americans are probing a possible Russian role in this so-called attack.  Frankly, if you believe any of that,...

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War in Syria

Por | 18 maio, 2017 | , , |

Trump Escalates Syrian Proxy War   At the start of the Trump presidency, it looked like the U.S. covert “regime change” war in Syria might be ending, but it has returned, zombie-like, in a slightly different form   Steven Chovanec May 18, 2017   Back in February, it was quietly reported that the CIA had discontinued its support program to rebels in Syria. A month later, a knowledgeable source from the region disclosed to me that the Trump administration and the Saudi defense minister, Prince Mohammed bin Salman, had agreed during their meetings in mid-March for the Gulf states to re-open supply channels to their rebel proxies. This was done, the source said, to keep the Syrian government’s army and its allied Russian air force occupied so that the U.S. and its Kurdish allies could continue dividing northern Syria, establishing a zone-of-influence throughout the lands they recapture from the Islamic State. Concurrent with this was a similar effort in the southeast, where U.S. and Jordanian backed forces have been battling ISIS while attempting to establish control over the border with Iraq. The strategy was to use the fight against ISIS as a pretext for establishing a de-facto occupation of Syrian territory, where in the Kurdish-held regions the U.S. has already established multiple military bases and airfields. A major motivation behind Russia’s push to establish de-escalation zones, now implemented after...

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