{"id":273599,"date":"2016-10-18T10:26:53","date_gmt":"2016-10-18T10:26:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/?p=273599"},"modified":"2016-10-18T13:32:39","modified_gmt":"2016-10-18T13:32:39","slug":"whether-go-war-russia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/breaking-news\/whether-go-war-russia\/","title":{"rendered":"Whether to Go to War Against Russia"},"content":{"rendered":"

Whether to Go to War Against Russia<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

Is Top Issue in U.S. Presidential Race<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

Eric Zuesse, originally posted at strategic-culture.org<\/span><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

The United States government has already declared that in regards to what it alleges to be a Russian cyberattack against the U.S. Democratic Party<\/span><\/a>, the U.S. reserves the right to go to war against Russia<\/span><\/a>. NATO has accordingly changed its policy<\/span><\/a> so as to assert that a cyberattack (in this case actually cyber-espionage<\/i>, such as the U.S. government itself perpetrates against even its own allies such as Angela Merkel by tapping her phone<\/span><\/a>) constitutes an act of war by the alleged cyberattacker, and so requires all NATO member nations to join any cyberattacked NATO nation in war against its alleged (cyber)attacker, if the cyberattacked member declares war against its alleged cyberattacker. Excuses are being sought for a war against Russia; and expanding the definition of \u201cinvasion,\u201d to include mere espionage, is one such excuse. But it\u2019s not the only<\/i> one that the Obama Administration has cooked up.<\/span><\/p>\n

U.S. Senator Mike Lee has asserted that President Barack Obama must obtain a declaration of war against Syria \u2014 which is allied with and defended by Russia \u2014 before invading Syria.<\/a><\/span> Syria has, for the past few years, already been invaded by tens of thousands of foreign jihadists (financed mainly by the royal Sauds and Qataris, and armed mainly with U.S. weaponry) who are trying to overthrow and replace the Syrian government so that pipelines can be built through Syria into Europe<\/span><\/a> to transport Saudi oil and Qatari gas into the EU, the world\u2019s biggest energy-market, which now is dominated by Russia\u2019s oil and gas. Since Syria is already being defended by Russia (those royals\u2019 major competitor in the oil and gas markets), America\u2019s invasion of Syria would necessarily place U.S. and Russia into an air-war against each other (for the benefit of those royal Arabs<\/span><\/a> \u2014 who finance jihadist groups<\/span><\/a>, as even Hillary Clinton acknowledges<\/span><\/a>): Syria would thus become a battleground in a broader war against Russia. So: declaring war against Syria would be a second<\/i> excuse for World War III, and one which would especially serve the desires not only of U.S. \u2018defense\u2019 firms but of the U.S. aristocracy\u2019s royal Arabic allies, who buy much of those \u2018defense\u2019 firms\u2019 exports (weaponry), and also U.S. oilfield services firms such as pipelines by Halliburton. (It\u2019s good business for them, no one else. Taxpayers and war-victims pay, but those corporations \u2014 and royal families \u2014 would profit.)<\/span><\/p>\n

The U.S. government also declares that Russia \u2018conquered\u2019 Crimea in 2014 and that Russia must restore it to Ukraine<\/span><\/a>. The U.S. government wants Ukraine to be accepted into NATO, so that all NATO nations will be at war against Russia if Russia doesn\u2019t return Crimea to Ukraine, of which Crimea had only briefly (1954-2014) been a part, until Crimeans voted on 16 March 2014 to rejoin Russia. This Crimean issue is already the basis for America\u2019s economic sanctions against Russia, and thus Russia\u2019s continuing refusal to coerce Crimeans to accept again being part of Ukraine would be yet a third<\/i> excuse for WW III.<\/span><\/p>\n

THE U.S. PRESIDENTIAL CONTEST<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

Hillary Clinton says \u201cAs President, I will make it clear, that the United States will treat cyber attacks just like any other attack.\u201d She alleges that when information was unauthorizedly made public from Democratic National Committee computers, the cyberattacker was Russia.<\/a><\/span> She can be counted as a strong proponent of that excuse for WW3. She\u2019s with Barack Obama and the other neocons on that.<\/span><\/p>\n

She has furthermore said that the U.S. should shoot down any Russian and Syrian bombers in Syria \u2014 the phrase for that proposed U.S. policy is to \u201cestablish a no-fly zone\u201d there. She makes clear: \u201cI am advocating the no-fly zone.\u201d<\/span><\/a> It would be war against not only Syria, but Russia. (After all: a no-fly zone in which the U.S. is shooting down the government\u2019s planes and Russia\u2019s planes, would be war by the U.S. against both Syria and Russia, but that\u2019s what she wants to do.) She can thus be counted as a strong proponent of those two<\/i> excuses for WW3.<\/span><\/p>\n

On the matter of Crimea, she has said<\/span><\/a> that \u201cPutin invaded and annexed Crimea,\u201d and \u201cIn the wake of Russia’s illegal annexation of Crimea in early 2014, some have argued that NATO expansion either caused or exacerbated Russia’s aggression. I disagree with that argument.\u201d She believes that the expansion of NATO right up to Russia\u2019s borders is good, not horrific and terrifying (as it is<\/i> to Russians \u2014 just like USSR\u2019s conquering of Mexico would have been<\/i> terrifying to Americans if USSR did that during the Cold War). Furthermore, because Ukraine is the main transit-route for Russian gas-pipelines into Europe<\/span><\/a>, the coup<\/span><\/a> that in 2014 overthrew the neutralist democratically elected President of Ukraine and replaced him by leaders who seek NATO membership for Ukraine and who have the power to cut off those pipelines, was strongly supported by both Obama and Clinton. She can thus be counted as a strong proponent of all three<\/i> excuses for WW3.<\/span><\/p>\n

U.S. President Obama has made unequivocally clear that he regards Russia as being by far the world\u2019s most \u201caggressive\u201d nation<\/span><\/a>; and Clinton, too, commonly uses the term \u201caggression\u201d as describing Russia (such as she did by her denial that \u201cNATO expansion either caused or exacerbated Russia’s aggression\u201d). To her, Russia\u2019s opposing real aggression by the U.S.<\/i> (in this case, America\u2019s 2014 coup that overthrew the democratically elected Ukrainian President<\/span><\/a> for whom 75% of Crimeans had voted<\/span><\/a>), constitutes<\/i> \u2018Russia\u2019s aggression\u2019, somehow. Furthermore, as regards whether Crimea\u2019s rejoining Russia was \u2018illegal\u2019 as she says: does she also deny the right of self-determination of peoples regarding the residents of Catalonia though the Spanish government accepts it there, and also by the residents of Scotland though the British government accepts it there? Or is she simply determined to have as many excuses to invade Russia as she can have? She has never condemned the independence movements in Scotland or Catalonia.<\/span><\/p>\n

The United States is clearly on a path toward war with Russia. Donald Trump\u00a0opposes all aspects of that policy<\/i><\/span><\/a>. <\/span><\/p>\n

That\u2019s the main difference between the two U.S. Presidential candidates.<\/b> Trump makes ridiculous statements about the \u2018need\u2019 to increase \u2018defense\u2019 spending during this period of soaring federal debt, but he has consistently condemned the moves toward war against Russia and said that America\u2019s real<\/i> enemy is jihadists, and that Russia is on our side<\/i> in this war \u2014 the real<\/i> war \u2014 not an enemy of America such as Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama claim. Both candidates (Trump and Clinton) are war-hawks, but Hillary wants to go to war against both jihadists and Russia, whereas Trump wants to go to war only<\/i> against jihadists. Trump\u2019s charge that Hillary would be a catastrophic President is borne out not only by her past record in public office<\/span><\/a>, but by her present positions<\/span><\/a> on these issues. <\/span><\/p>\n

America\u2019s Presidential campaign is dominated by Trump\u2019s crassly vulgar obsession with sex, and by debates about whether his hiding his tax-returns is worse than Hillary\u2019s hiding her paid speeches to corporate lobbyists, and her hiding her emails while she was Secretary of State. Regardless of whom America\u2019s next President will be (either Clinton or Trump), it\u2019s not<\/i> going to be a good President, and anyone who thinks that these are the two best-qualified people to be contesting for the U.S. Presidency is either ignorant or else grossly misinformed \u2014 or else in sheer reality-denial. But all of those other issues are dwarfed by the top issue of this election: shall we have World War III? And that one issue is by far more important than all of the other \u2018issues\u2019 in this campaign, because it\u2019s nothing less than an existential<\/i> issue, regarding all of the world, and all of the future, which threatens the entire world within just the next few years, or even months, or maybe just weeks.<\/span><\/p>\n

Americans are being offered, by this nation\u2019s aristocracy<\/span><\/a>, a choice between a marginally competent and deeply evil psychopath Hillary Clinton, versus an incompetent but far less evil psychopath Donald Trump<\/span><\/a>, and the nation\u2019s press are reporting instead a choice between two candidates of whom one (the actually evil Clinton<\/span><\/a>) is presented as being far preferable to the other (the actually incompetent Trump<\/span><\/a>), and possibly as being someone who might improve this nation if not the world. Virtually none of America\u2019s Establishment is willing to report the truth: that the nation\u2019s rotting will get worse under either person as President, but that only under Trump might this nation (and the world) stand a reasonable likelihood of surviving at all (i.e., nuclear war with Russia being averted).<\/span><\/p>\n

Things won\u2019t get better, but they definitely could get a hell of a lot worse \u2014 and this<\/i> is the issue, the real<\/i> one, in the present election: WW3, yes or no on that.<\/span><\/p>\n

Hillary Clinton argues that she, with her neoconservative backing (consisting of the same people who cheer-led the invasion of Russia-friendly Iraq, and who shared her joy in doing the same to Russia-friendly Libya \u2014 \u201cWe came, we saw, he died, ha ha!\u201d<\/span><\/a>), is the better person to have her finger on the nuclear button with Russia. This U.S. Presidential election will be decided upon the WW3-issue, unless the American electorate are incredibly stupid (or else terribly deceived): Is she correct to allege that she and not Trump should have control over the nuclear button against Russia? She\u2019s even more of a neoconservative than Obama is, and this is why she has the endorsement of neoconservatives in this election<\/span><\/a>. And that is the issue.<\/span><\/p>\n

The real question isn\u2019t whether America and the world will be improved by the next U.S. President; it\u2019s whether America and the world will be destroyed by the next U.S. President. All else is mere distraction, by comparison. And the U.S. public now are extremely distracted \u2014 unfortunately, even by the candidates themselves. The pathetic Presidential candidates that the U.S. aristocracy<\/span><\/a> has provided to Americans, for the public\u2019s votes in the final round, don\u2019t focus on this reality.<\/span><\/p>\n

Anyone who thinks that the majority of billionaires can\u2019t possibly believe in a \u2018winnable\u2019 nuclear war and can\u2019t possibly be wanting WW3 should read this<\/span><\/a>. That was published by the Council on Foreign Relations, Wall Street\u2019s international-affairs think tank. They mean business. And that\u2019s the source of neoconservatism \u2014 the top U.S.-based international corporations, mainly in \u2018defense\u2019 and oil and Wall Street. (Clinton\u2019s career is based upon precisely those three segments, whereas Trump\u2019s is based instead upon real estate and entertainment, neither of which segments is neoconservative.) <\/span><\/p>\n

It doesn\u2019t come from nowhere; it comes from the people who buy and sell politicians.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014<\/span><\/p>\n

Investigative historian Eric Zuesse is the author, most recently, of\u00a0 They\u2019re Not Even Close: The Democratic vs. Republican Economic Records, 1910-2010<\/i><\/span><\/a>,<\/i> and of<\/span> \u00a0<\/i>CHRIST\u2019S VENTRILOQUISTS: The Event that Created Christianity<\/i><\/span><\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Whether to Go to War Against Russia Is Top Issue in U.S. Presidential Race Eric Zuesse, originally posted at strategic-culture.org The United States government has already declared that in regards to what it alleges to be a Russian cyberattack against the U.S. Democratic Party, the U.S. reserves the right to go to war against Russia. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1254,"featured_media":273124,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[487,461,18],"tags":[115,30,698,59,1023,524,754,6257,523,49,76,40,1024],"class_list":{"0":"post-273599","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-breaking-news","8":"category-editorials","9":"category-latest-news","10":"tag-barack-obama","11":"tag-big-brother","12":"tag-hillary-clinton","13":"tag-military","14":"tag-nuclear","15":"tag-russia","16":"tag-syria","17":"tag-trump","18":"tag-ukraine","19":"tag-usa-news","20":"tag-warfare","21":"tag-white-house","22":"tag-ww3"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/273599","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1254"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=273599"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/273599\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/273124"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=273599"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=273599"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=273599"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}