The US policy towards the NATO countries has always been contentious. During the height of the Cold War our economic policy often seemed to hurt Europe as long as it hurt the Soviet Union. The threat of the Soviet Union allowed us to get away with the policy.
With the fall of the Soviet Union, Europe was able to get a stable, cheaper low of oil and natural gas from Russia. It was a win for both Europe and Russia. Germany’s economic growth in the past 25 years can be attributed to this.
With the Neos wanting to start a cold war with Russia, we keep on trying to punish Russia economically. Our sanctions against them really haven’t worked, so we are doubling down. Our latest round of sanctions are also against Europe, telling them they can’t trade with Russia.
We’ve offered to sell them natural gas from the US to make up for it, but it is much more expensive for them, having to go by ship instead of by pipeline.
The NATO countries are kicking back. They don’t see Russia in the same way we do, and don’t want to pay for a potentially less stable source of supply. It’s bad enough that we’ve alienated most of the Middle East countries. How does it serve our interests to alienate Europe?…
The Kurds have been America’s “whipping boy” for many decades. I don’t understand why they still believe us. Kissinger was the first to pump them up and then pull the plug on them once we didn’t’ need them anymore. We did it again to them after the first Gulf War. We’re doing it again.
Despite our efforts in the never ending wars in the Middle East and Africa, we are creating allies and alliances that without our intervention would never have happened.
Who would have believed when we started that Iran and Iraq would form a military alliance? Who could have seen the time where Russia would gain huge influence in the Middle East again? The Saudis and the Israelis are partnering up on issues. The King of Saudi Arabia visits Russia for the first time ever.
We’ve achieved some regional stability. Just not the stability that we set out to accomplish.…
The US seems to be stuck in the Cold War. We see the only way to make allies is to pick a side in a country and arm and train them to defeat the other side. As has been our model for decades we pick someone to lead these countries and of course it’s usually someone that has been educated in the west and is someone we like as opposed to someone that the people of the country like. It has never worked out well.
The fall of the Soviet Union taught a lot of lessons to our foes around the world. We defeated them by bankrupting them. Our adversaries realized that “investing” in military hardware was not a bright idea.
Fast forward to 2017. Our former adversaries have been concentrating on economic growth. They had discovered that it is easier and more profitable to gain geopolitical influence with economic power than military power.
For those who question the concept of trade as a weapon, you just need to look at South Korea and China. South Korea exports a lot of goods to China. When we forced the South Koreans to install the Thaad system in their country, China saw it as a threat. Oddly enough, South Korea’s exports to China were turned off. Huge economic impact on South Korea.…
Gosh, another day and another “Putin is evil" story.
Lots of “information” floating around and not a lot of knowledge. I’ve been watching this story trying to discern knowledge.
Right now I don’t see the “proof” of crimes. Lots of accusations flying and for the liberals they want to protect Hillary and attack Putin. For the right, anything that implicates Hillary in something evil is good news.
This is the most complete information I’ve seen so far.
More is surely to follow.…
This is an amazing three part series. All three parts are linked below.
When the Cold War ended, America stood at a cross roads. Many hailed the resultant “peace dividend”. The notion was that with the end of high defense spending during the Cold War, we could use that money for other internal purposes (of course no politician put forth the notion of giving the money back to the taxpayers).
Aside from economic changes, the US faced no major military threats for the first time in a long time. What an opportunity.
Of course the opportunity was turned into America becoming an empire, just like the old British empire. It’s ending the same way.
We had a long period where we could impose our way pretty much at will. In the absence of an economic or military adversary, we become the bullies of the world. Then Russia and China caught up.
We stood a good chance of becoming one of the three “super powers”, sharing influence with the Russians and the Chinese. Right now we face the very real possibility of falling behind China and Russia.
This is a very sobering series.…
I have long thought that our Neos want another Cold War. It’s the perfect scenario for our Military Industrial Complex. We get to buy lots of equipment, none of which really has to work. Heck we never have to use it. Who remembers the debacle with the Patriot Missiles in the first Gulf War? They didn’t work, yet no one got fired and we merely gave them more money to fix them.
When the Soviet Union fell, we agreed not to expand NATO into the former Soviet states. That agreement ended up being meaningless.
Now we’ve got US and other NATO forces closer to the Russian homeland. The Russians lost 27 MILLION people in World War II. All on their homeland. It’s difficult for Americans to imagine fighting for where we live. We’ve only been invaded once and that didn’t turn out so well for the British, but it wasn’t a town to town, house to house battle.
It’s not hard to imagine that Russia would want to protect its country.
Yet, as the US concentrates on re-fighting WWII in Europe, the rest of the developed world concentrates on economic warfare, forging new alliances based on trade.
And we wonder why we’re $20+ Trillion in debt. …
The Neos are doing everything they can to damage Russia.
At the behest of the Saudi’s we put sanctions on their oil exports to Europe thinking that we’d destroy Russia’s economies. All that happened was a shift in Russia’s exports to Asia.
We continue with other sanctions and vilification of Russia and so far the only result has been Russia’s alliances with China, Asia and the Middle East.
Even our “friends” the Saudis have made up with Russia and new growth and friendships are emerging.
The Neos would have you believe that they are smarter than you are. That we should trust them because they are the “enlightened” ones. They got spoiled though in the post Cold War era. There was a time when taking on 2nd and 3rd world countries was as simple as showing up and bullying them.
Developed countries aren’t so easy to bully. They are smart too. The cypto-rouble will get foreign investment into Russia, a country with a stable, virtually debt free economy. We sanction their banks and they figure out a different way to excel. Innovation used to be our greatness. …
The phenomenon of not “talking” to countries we don’t like isn’t limited to the United States. Europe is falling into the same trap.
We all have the same problem with our neighbors. Most folks don’t even know who lives next door, but will claim “friends” that we’ve never met on Facebook and other social media. We not knowing neighbors merely hurts the social construct. Countries not even talking often ends up in war.
Countries don’t have to “like” other countries. They can learn to get along. Iran and Iraq, even with their history of animosity are cooperating militarily. Pakistan and India with their long hatred of each other have not used their nuclear bombs on each other, yet both have had them for a long time. North and South Korea have stayed on their side of the DMZ.
Running people off from a forum that is designed to have rational discussion over perceived problems doesn’t seem like a good idea. …
With the end of the Cold War, the US Defense Department has become both the State Department and the Department of Offense. We negotiate at the point of a gun and have ignored the defense of the United States.
We’ve spent $1.5 Trillion dollars on the F35, an airplane that marginally works and probably never will.
Russia had an advantage that the US didn’t in the past decades. They didn’t have the money to develop and field a huge, modern fighter aircraft fleet. Yes, they have done research on some really good jets. They still can’t afford to field a lot of them.
So, they concentrated on defending Russia with some awesome air defense capabilities. Having a large fleet of aircraft like we do doesn’t really matter if they can all be neutralized. And, missiles are cheaper.
Perhaps it’s time to concentrate on defending our country.…
Continuing in my theme of “what’s the harm in talking”, Saudi Arabia’s King traveled to and met with the President of Russia last week. Historic in the fact that it was the first visit ever by the King to Russia.
Unlike our media, the rest of the world sees the economic power, growth and influence of Russia in the Eurasia region. We fixate on military might. Russia and China are focused on economic might.
Russia and Saudi Arabia have some key differences and some key common interests. Both want higher oil prices. They disagree on Iran and they disagree on Salafi-jihadi terror. Amazingly (not really) oil won the day and the Saudis didn’t get their way on controlling Iran.
It was a win-win for Russia and Saudi Arabia. Of course Saudi Arabia still controls the US, so we’ll do their bidding in Iran. …
