THE NEW COLD WAR BETWEEN USA &
RUSSIA
The
Russian positions that have kept the upper hand, not to mention that Putin
saved Obama from yet another Middle East
war. As Syria was a Russian win, no wonder Washington dreams of a win in
Ukraine. We can interpret what’s going, on now as a remix of the 2004 Orange
Revolution. But the big picture goes way back – from NATO’s expansion in the
1990s to American NGOs trying to destabilize Russia, NATO’s first with Georgia,
and those missile defence schemes so close to Russian borders.
The
new cold war same as the old cold war. Same
but different one day it is the myriad implications of Washington’s pivoting to
Asia, as in the containment of China the next day, it is the perennial attempt
to box Russia in. never a dull moment in the New Great Game in Eurasia. On Russia
the denigration of all things Sochi- to the inherent stupidity of Western corporate
media standards, was just a subplot of the main show, which always gets personal; the relentless demonization
of Russian President Vladimir Putin.
US
think Tankland now also peddles the notion that the Obama is expertly adept at
a balance of power strategy. To include Libya as part of this strategy is a
sick joke; Libya post Gaddafi is a
failed state courtesy of humanitarian bombing by the North Atlantic Treaty
Organization. Meanwhile, in Syria the US strategy boils down to let Aras kill
Arabs in droves.
Iran
is way more complex. Arguably the Obama administration calculates that through
talks between Iran and the five permanent members of the United Nations
Security Council plus Germany. It will be able to outmaneuver the Russians, who
are close to Tehran. This assuming the Obama administration really wants a
nuclear deal with Iran that would later release the floodgates of Western
world.
The
US strategy rules that street protests should lead to regime change. It applies
to the Ukraine, but it does not apply to Thailand. Washington wants regime
change in the Ukraine for one reason only; in the wider new Great Game in
Eurasia context that would be the rough equivalent of Texas defecting from the
US and becoming a Russian ally. Still this gambit is bound to fail. Moscow has
myriad ways to deploy economic leverage in Ukraine; it has access to much
better Intel than the Americans; and the protester/gangs are just a noisy minority.
Washington
tough won’t give up, as it sees both the political crises in Ukraine as the
emerging financial crisis in Kazakhstan as opportunities to threaten Moscow’s
economic/strategic interests. It is as if the Beltway was praying for a
widespread financial crisis in the Russia led Customs Union Russia Kazakhstan
and Belarus, pray in fact is all they have got while the EU, for the entire grandiose,
theoretical wishful thing, remains a divided mess.
