Rumsfeld, Bolton, Perle, Wolfowitz, Kagan, Zoellick,Schmitt - all valiant 'Chicken Hawks'

"At present the United States faces no global rival. America’s grand strategy should aim to preserve and extend this advantageous position as far into the future as possible."

PNACers seem to harken back to fuedalism. They are politically primitive.
 Jane Smiley

 "The PNAC program, in a nutshell: America’s military must rule out even the possibility of a serious global or regional challenger anywhere in the world.

 "Nineteen Arabs were named as hijackers of the 9/11 planes, but they've been a dream come true for the PNAC 'think-tank' whose 2000 Statement of Principles stated a "catastrophic and catalyzing event, like a new Pearl Harbor" would advance their policies, i.e. justify wars and "regime changes".
 Quotes from The PNAC's "Rebuilding America's Defenses"

The Project for the New American Century (PNAC) originated in a Washington based think tank in 1997 founded by William Kristol and Robert Kagan. Its stated goal was to promote the view that "American leadership is both good for America and good for the world"

In discussing the PNAC report Rebuilding America's Defenses (2000), Neil MacKay, investigations editor for the Scottish Sunday Herald, quoted Tam Dalyell: "'This is garbage from right-wing think tanks stuffed with chicken-hawks, men who have never seen the horror of war but are in love with the idea of war. Men like Cheney, who were draft-dodgers in the Vietnam war.  These are the thought processes of fanatic sociopath Americans who want to control the world."

The PNAC group have left a spectacular trail of costly failed ventures in terms of lives lost and nation states destroyed, such as in Iraq, Libya and Afghanistan but they don't give up and are now attempting a repeat in Syria, Iran and Ukraine while uttering warlike challenges to Russia. President Vladimir Putin stands in their way by blocking Nuland's regime change in Syria, defending the aspirations of Russian speaking Ukrainians living in regions bordering Russia and defusing US threats against Iran's peaceful nuclear ambitions. He has also consistently condemned before the fact PNAC's interventions. The US media consistently labels him as an enemy of Washington's peaceful intentions.

US foreign policy is hopelessly entangled in PNAC's goals for 'Regime Change' in Syria and this explains the bizarre US polic y of arming Jihad terrorists and in Kiev allying, on an end justifying the means basis,with corrupt and Nazi elements in the government thus inflaming the conflict and distrust between Kiev and Ukrainians living in areas bordering Russia. This destructive interference in the Ukraine is being led by the notorious Victoria Nuland of "fuck Europe" fame and her husband Dick Kagan (who had a leading role in the design of PNAC) and  supported by President Obama. Strangely the EU led by knee-jerking neocons like Anders Fogh Rasmussen, José Manuel Barroso, and strangely tolerated by Merkel and Hollande, are supportive of these costly US led disasters occurring in their back yard. Past European leaders like Willie Brandt, Helmut Schmidt, Jacques Chirac and Charles De Gaulle would have brought all of this destructive nonsense to an abrupt halt and sent PNAC and its NATO war machine packing back to America.

What is the future for PNAC, in a World dominated by unrivaled US financial and military dominance since WWII? The good news is that US share of the World's GDP that once stood at 50%. has since declined today to 26% which is comparable with EU figures. As the World's economy becomes  increasingly multi-polar with the GDP of other leading regions and nation states (e.g. India, China, Brazil, SE Asia) growing at several times the rate of the US we can expect  that the concept of PNAC (The Project for the New American Century) is on a collision course with reality.  Despite this the US unfortunately continues to use NATO as their roving battleship to batter down nations such as Russia that threaten PNAC's hegemonic ambitions. Brussels complies because they find NATO useful to strengthen relationships, including  military commitments, with countries in Eastern Europe that were once members of the Warsaw Pact.

PNAC and NATO are organizations designed for conflict and by their very nature and mandate require an enemy. If the humanitarian concerns of regions in conflict such as currently in Ukraine, Syria and Iran were of genuine concern, then European, Russian and the Washington would preside over joint meetings to arrange financial aid and support. Putin has put forward recommendation for such meetings but Obama and his vassals in Brussels refuse to talk with him because it conflicts with the avaristic hegemony of PNAC to gain control of the oil and industrial resources in the region and for Brussels to piggyback on this ambition.

The West is playing a dangerous game with Washington's right wing led by PNAC promoting further military build up in Eastern Europe and wanting to move NATO into the Ukraine up against Russia's doorstep. Its forcing European nations to take sides and encouraging revolution in a deeply divided Ukraine. Its producing a powder keg.  A powder keg kicked off World War I and it could happen again.

As far as I know America is the only nation who proclaims their leadership is good for the world. Try claiming that throughout the Nations of Latin America,  Iraq,  Iran, India, China, Brazil - the list is long. PNAC is an aggressive invention of the right wing in America that has failed miserably in the past  and is predictable to repeat the same in the future. Armed with NATO and in the hands of mediocre politicians of which there is an abundent supply of these days, it will continue to do great harm. 

Vladimir Putin - great leader or villain?

Preface  
 Augst 7 2014: US sanctions against Russia to no ones surprise are severely backfiring with the Russian PM Dimitry Medvedev signing a decree on the full ban for imports of beef, pork, poultry meat, fish, cheese, milk, vegetables and fruit from Australia, Canada, the EU, the US and Norway. One wonders why these countries other than the US bothers to carry the overhead of governments since the all take their orders from Washington in this insane pursuit of self-destruction. The cost to Russia and the western nations of this food fight will annually amount to hundreds of billions dollars in lost revenues. While their unfit weak leaders fluff up their feathers and huff and puff their already weak economies face further damage. Wth the battle now extending to the airlines this is becoming an economic disaster. Why are we doing this to ourselves? Is leadership so weak now that there are no EU leader that can step forward and say "lets end this self destructive nonsense"?
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May 1 2014: The Cold War is back as Russia and the US/EU battle over the Ukraine. On the east side the population is predominately Russian speaking and have strong historical relationships with Russia. To the West and in Kiev sympathies lean more to developing closer ties with the EU and accepting NATO. The IMF have just offered a loan to Ukraine in the vicinity of 17 billion US dollars and it has been accepted.  The demands for austerity and the selling  off of assets as part of packages produced an economic and social disaster in Russia during the Yeltsin period including imposing a brutal program of austerity to pay off the bankers. The IMF is now often referred to as global loan shark and has repeated these measures in over 70 countries including Greece and Portugal with the same disastrous results. The question at this point is whether the Ukraine, a deeply troubled nation with a highly educated population will accept living with the IMF's terms for austerity and the inevitable selling off of assets to the highest bidders. 

• Victoria Nuland travels to Kiev to hand out cookies to the riot police. It is not known whether she baked them or bought them from Lidl or Aldi.
• We are told  to vilify Vladimir Putin and this blog is an attempt to explain why.
• Ms Nuland was heard to say "Fuck the EU!! and Ms Merkel angrily asked for an apology. This offering of cookies might help.
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• The New York Times and Fox News say that Vladimir Putin is a very evil so everyone in America who watches TV and the mainstream media know that he must be a very bad guy.
• Putin made an outrageous statement "Sometimes it seems to me that America does not need allies, it needs vassals." and this clearly shows the thoughts of a disrespectful very bad guy.
• He intervened but failed to prevent the CIA-NATO coup against Gaddafi that destroyed Libya as a nation-state with the loss of many lives so Obama and his Assistant Secretary of State for Europe and Eurasian Affairs, Victoria Nuland, are very offended and Putin must be a very bad guy 
• He prevented the US military from finishing off the Assad Government in Syria while funding Jihad rebels and in the process forced a peace that eliminated chemical weapons, including the rebels use of  Sarin gas by blocking the Jihad. Victoria Nuland is upset again because she had her heart set on bloodshed and regime change. This arrogant defiance of US striking power was further proof that he is evil and  must be a very bad guy.
• He was very critical at the outset of the US invasion of Iraq that has left the country in ruins. Here again Victoria Nuland and her husband Robert Kagan of PNAC fame who led the charge into Iraq are very upset. This is a gross insult of the intentions and use of US power and therefore he must be a very bad guy. Hillary Clinton has finally admitted that in supporting the invasion she made a mistake so maybe Putin, the bad guy, was right but all the same if the NYT says he is a bad guy. 
• He accepted the will of Crimeans in a free vote to return to their original Russian homeland, Hillary strangely called him a Nazi for supporting this, Poroshenko the corrupt chocolate king President of Ukraine and his close friend and equally corrupt and self enriched ally Yulia Timoshenko that he freed from jail are upset too, so this surely makes Putin a very bad guy.
• He  builds troops along his border as NATO points its missiles toward Russia and Obama has asked him not to do this so Putin must be a very bad guy
• Obama feels insulted and hurt when Putin doesn't agree with him so he is sulking and has decided to stop communicating with him because he is clearly a very bad guy.
• Putin is supplying natural gas to Western Europe and this stands in the way of promoting US fracking and shipping liquified gas to Europe at much higher prices and this is not good for US business and again clearly makes him a very bad guy.
• The twin tower attack in Volgograd by a Saudi financed Jihadist killed 32 people and this is just one of similar Saudi inspired attacks. Putin threatens a retaliation on our beloved Saudi allies who also brought down New York's twin towers, and supplies arms and money to Jihad rebels in Syria so he must be a very bad guy.
• Putin described the Victoria Nuland led gang in Kiev as an orgy of unelected radicals, fascists and corrupt misfits. That is true but he is insulting our Washington and EU allies so he must be a very bad guy.
• The mostly Russian speaking population in Eastern Ukraine show more trust, loyalty and affection for their Russian neighbours across the border than for the collection of unelected misfits in Kiev and this is surely because of the influence of Putin who must be a very bad guy.
• Obama has ordered spying to find out whether Putin is richer than the Koch brothers and Sheldon Adelson (who enrich the US Congress) and if so this will prove that just like them he is truly an evil and bad guy. 
• Putin's popularity rating in Russia averages around 85% according to the Washington Post. This compares with a very popular Merkel at 69%, Obama at 41% and Hollande at 26%. This proves that the Russian people know something that we don't know about this truly evil and bad guy.

Summary: Does all this seem totally insane? Of course it is. Vladimir trades insults with Obama and fails to show the respect that this Nobel Prize winning US President so richly deserves. From this I am sure you will agree that he must be a very bad guy or just maybe he might be a very good guy.

Vladimir Putin, a voice for sanity, update 03/2014

 

Why Putin Is Still so Popular in Russia

Russians seem to prefer a strong, authoritarian state to the weak government and economic chaos they experienced under Yeltsin. 

Putin, on the issue of Syria  has shown more integrity and wise judgement than the U.S. and French governments.

Many Westerners have a negative view of Russia’s President, Vladimir Putin, because of the unjust portrayal he receives in the Western media. If one were to believe everything they saw in the American media, they would probably think Putin to be a ruthless dictator who was anointed by birth rather than a politician born into a working class family with approval ratings higher than all of his Western counterparts.
The Bilzerian Report

Update: March 26th 2014
Crimea by a popular vote overwhelmingly has declared its separation from the Ukraine and has joined with Russia. There are many precedents of this where a public elects to change allegiances. For example, Kosovo chose to separate from Serbia, The Czechs chose to separate from the Slovaks and Canada accepts the possibility that Quebec through a referendum would be allowed to separate from Canada.  The Americans are outraged because for years they have been using the Ukraine as a battering ram against Russia's borders with their construction of a missile shield while wooing Ukrainians with financial enticements to join the European economic community and with it the American inspired NATO and military alliances. Old 'Cold War' warriors are still looking for employment and some meaning in their useless lives.

The Ukraine is deeply divided with the largely Russian speaking people on the eastern border shared with Russia opposed to joining the EU and with many favouring the route taken by Crimeans, while on its western border they favour joining the EU. Orchestrated by the US, the weak European nations have leapt onto the bandwagon and are expressing their outrage at the will of Crimeans to join Russia. 

The noise and propaganda in the press is deafening as though we have all become like demented lemmings on a voyage of self destruction. Strong independent leaders like Degaulle, Helmut Schmidt and Willie Brandt have departed the scene and we now have the spectacle of the 'blanc mange' leadership in Brussels of Lady Catherine Ashton and José Barroso orchestrated by America's Victoria Nuland, Assistant Secretary of State for Eurasian Affairs.   As an extreme right wing ideologue under Cheney and Bush she led the charge into Iraq to bring about regime change and most recently upset Merkel by using the words F--- Europe! Clearly this Cold War warrior with her dealings in the Ukraine with unelected right wing corrupt politicians that includes in their midst disreputable anti Semites, Nazis and other known  right wing trash is intent on setting up regime change to install an American controlled  puppet government. No doubt undermining Putin is on her agenda.
 
Putin has been a consistent voice for sanity in the midst of this international rush to go off to war and has been using his influence aggressively to oppose unjust and internationally illegal wars. He opposed the war in Iraq and he was right. He opposed the killing of Gaddafi and the collapse of Tunisia and he was right. He opposes the sanctions and threats against Iran and he is right. He opposes the rush to war in Syria with scant evidence and unclear objectives and he is right. Russian President Vladimir Putin has declared ‘utter nonsense’ the idea that the Syrian government has used chemical weapons on its own people and called on the US to present its supposed evidence to the UN Security Council. He is right. He had every right to protect Snowden who had committed no crime and yet faced, like Manning, a lengthy prison sentence if returned to face US justice. Only through Putin has Snowden been able to express his views about NASA and the obstruction to the freedom of information. Listen to the TED series out of Vancouver to learn more about this. Obama has discovered he is dealing with an equal he can't push around and Putin is right and doesn't mind that Obama now refuses to meet with him.
What has he accomplished for the Russian people?

First a bit about his predecessor, Yeltsin:  Yeltsin became President in 1991 and  turned to the advice of Western economists, and Western institutions such as the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank, Harvard experts, and the US Treasury Department, whose recipe became known as the "Washington Consensus" It was a disaster for Russia. The so-called reforms devastated the living standards of much of the population, Russia's GDP fell by 50 percent, vast sectors of the economy were wiped out, inequality and unemployment grew dramatically, while incomes fell. Personal savings were wiped out, and tens of millions were plunged into poverty. Added to this, a classic rape of Russia's assets occurred.  Due to the method of privatization, a good deal of the national wealth fell into the hands of a small group of oligarchs. Much of this Yeltsin era was marked by widespread corruption, inflation, gangland murders, economic collapse and enormous political and social problems.This era was commonly referred to as a period of "Gangster Capitalism".

Vladimir Putin: In 1999 Yeltsin resigned and Putin was elected as President. He has cleaned up the economic mess left by Yeltsin but what specifically has he accomplished since then?

• Under Putin’s reign in contrast with Yeltsin era, he turned the Russian economy around and it has grown every single year, with an overall GDP increase (net of inflation) of more than 70%. 
• During the same period, investments rose 125%, industry grew by 76%, and poverty decreased 50%. 
• He dealt with the oligarchs, imprisoned the most corrupt who hadn't fled to live under British protection, and regained control of vital assets.  
• Average monthly salaries in Russia increased from $80 to $640, and the middle class grew from 8 million people to 55 million.
• He introduced a 13% flat tax and the reduction of the corporate tax rate from 35% to 24%.
• The national debt stands at 10% of GNP because of a wise use of national income. This compares with figures in excess of 100% in the US, GB, and many European nations. 

Putin positioned Russia as an energy super power that Europe has come to rely on.

Putin’s business acumen, just foreign policy decisions, and humanitarian leadership should be congratulated throughout the world. If only American Presidents could respect freedom and other nations’ sovereignty like Vladimir Putin, the planet would be a lot more peaceful.

Sept 13th 2013 update: Putin's latest agreement with the Syrian President to place all chemical weapons storage facilities under international control, but also for its further destruction and then joining the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons is an example of his enlightened leadership.

Putin despite the demands of the Presidency has time for a personal life that I suspect he enjoys showing to the World. Some of it is clearly staged such as his flight with the birds and displays of his athletic prowess, although the hundreds of photos of him with wildlife and without a gun other than to stun and tag illustrates a man who loves and respects life in the animal kingdom. His advocacy of avoiding wars with other nations may reflect he respect for human life as well. Unlike many world leaders he is no sociopath.

Click on this to read the speech he made to the American people about Syria