{"id":282865,"date":"2016-12-06T10:37:23","date_gmt":"2016-12-06T09:37:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/?p=282865"},"modified":"2016-12-06T17:03:28","modified_gmt":"2016-12-06T16:03:28","slug":"russia-threat-imperialist-war-machine","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/editorials\/russia-threat-imperialist-war-machine\/","title":{"rendered":"Russia is only a threat to the imperialist war machine"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>(<a href=\"http:\/\/rinf.com\">RINF<\/a>) &#8211; Russia is vilified solely for its sovereign independence, Putin denigrated for his anti-imperial views deserving universal respect and support.<\/p>\n<div>\n<p><span style=\"font-kerning: none;\">No \u201cRussian aggression\u201d exists, not in Ukraine or anywhere else. Putin responsibly supports peace and stability, abhors wars.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-kerning: none;\">He\u2019s gone all-out to diplomatically resolve US-instigated and supported ones in Syria and Ukraine &#8211; his good faith efforts consistently undermined by neocon infested Washington, humanity\u2019s greatest threat.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-kerning: none;\">Joint Chiefs Chairman General Joseph (\u201cfighting Joe) Dunford, along with other retired and active duty hawkish US generals and admirals disgracefully call Russia America\u2019s greatest threat.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-kerning: none;\">It poses none to any nation. Not a shred of evidence suggests otherwise. Yet disgraceful accusations persist.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-kerning: none;\">America and 11 European countries intend establishing a Helsinki, Finland center on how to respond to Russia\u2019s nonexistent hybrid warfare threat.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-kerning: none;\">Last summer, Obama called US-created and supported ISIS, Russia and Brexit Washington\u2019s greatest threats at a time none exist except invented ones.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-kerning: none;\">US Air Force Secretary Deborah James on Saturday called Russia \u201cthe number one threat to the United States.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-kerning: none;\">\u201cWe have a number of threats that we\u2019re dealing with, but Russia could be, because of the nuclear aspect, an existential threat to the United States,\u201d she said.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-kerning: none;\">She cited what she called \u201cvery dangerous (Russian) airmanship and nonexistent cyber-attacks.\u201d Chief of Naval Operations Admiral John Richardson and Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition, Technology, and Logistics Frank Kendall III expressed the same nonsensical concerns.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-kerning: none;\">Anti-Russia accusations repeatedly surface. None pass the smell test, Moscow often blamed for US high crimes together with rogue allies.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-kerning: none;\">Last August, James called Russia \u201cone of the handful of (countries) that could actually present an existential threat to the US. They have nuclear weapons.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-kerning: none;\">\u201cThey have been acting (in) very aggressive manners in recent years. And they are also investing and are testing military capabilities\u2026that is very worrisome for the United States and to our allies.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-kerning: none;\">Washington has no just cause to fear Russia &#8211; Moscow clearly threatened by aggressive US behavior, including leading thousands of NATO combat troops deployed near its borders, along with provocative military exercises close to its territory, suggesting preparation for future conflict.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-kerning: none;\">Russia is forced to act defensively to protect against a potential US attack it hopes won\u2019t come. No responsible government would do less.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-kerning: none;\">With Obama\u2019s tenure ending in January, it remains to be seen if Trump intends normalizing bilateral ties, working with Putin responsibly, both leaders cooperating in combating terrorism in Syria &#8211; as he indicated while campaigning.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-kerning: none;\">He\u2019s being heavily pressured to stay hardline. Will he go his own way for the sake of world peace and stability or continue dirty business as usual?\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<div style=\"-webkit-text-stroke-color: #000000; -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Arial; font-size: 18px; line-height: normal;\"><span style=\"font-kerning: none;\">We won\u2019t know until he begins governing, maybe beyond his first 100 days. The agenda he announced, discussed in an <a href=\"http:\/\/sjlendman.blogspot.com\/2016\/11\/trump-updates-his-first-100-days.html\"><span style=\"-webkit-font-kerning: none; -webkit-text-stroke-color: #1255cc; color: #1255cc;\">earlier article<\/span><\/a>, included nothing about allying with Moscow in combating terrorism, nothing about a new role for NATO, nothing about favoring diplomacy over war-making.<\/span><\/div>\n<div style=\"-webkit-text-stroke-color: #000000; -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Arial; font-size: 18px; line-height: normal;\"><\/div>\n<p><em><span style=\"font-kerning: none;\">Stephen Lendman lives in Chicago. He can be reached at lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net.\u00a0<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n<p><em><span style=\"font-kerning: none;\">His new book as editor and contributor is titled &#8220;Flashpoint in Ukraine: How the US Drive for Hegemony Risks WW III.&#8221;<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n<p><em><span style=\"font-kerning: none;\">http:\/\/www.claritypress.com\/LendmanIII.html<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n<p><em><span style=\"font-kerning: none;\">Visit his blog site at sjlendman.blogspot.com.\u00a0<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n<p><em><span style=\"font-kerning: none;\">Listen to cutting-edge discussions with distinguished guests on the Progressive Radio News Hour on the Progressive Radio Network.<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>(RINF) &#8211; Russia is vilified solely for its sovereign independence, Putin denigrated for his anti-imperial views deserving universal respect and support. No \u201cRussian aggression\u201d exists, not in Ukraine or anywhere else. Putin responsibly supports peace and stability, abhors wars.\u00a0 He\u2019s gone all-out to diplomatically resolve US-instigated and supported ones in Syria and Ukraine &#8211; his [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1217,"featured_media":143627,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[461,18],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-282865","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-editorials","8":"category-latest-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/282865","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\/1217"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=282865"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/282865\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/143627"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=282865"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=282865"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=282865"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}