Demonizing
Rivals and Instigating Wars
Putin's Bear
to Obama's Turkey
By
Finian Cunningham
January 02,
2017 "Information
Clearing House"
-
"Sputnik"
-
Not for the
first time, the contrast in character between Putin
and Obama was illustrated in the latest diplomatic
spat over alleged Russian hacking. The temptation to
hit back in kind to Washington's sanctions must have
been great for Moscow. But in the end, the Russian
leader probably showed that the best response was to
simply ignore Obama's clumsy stupidity.
With
typical histrionics and contrived fanfare, the White
House announced that it was expelling 35 Russian
diplomats, whom it accused of being "spies" and of
alleged hacking during the US presidential election
in November. Initially, Moscow appeared ready to
reciprocate with an equivalent banning of American
officials. However, President Putin then made a
surprise attack. He said that his government would
not take retaliatory measures. Indeed, he went
further by offering seasonal goodwill greetings to
President Obama, his family and the people of
America, as well as repeating invitations to the
children of accredited US diplomats in Russia to
festivities being held at the Kremlin. It was a
brilliant move on Putin's part, which even arch-Putin-haters
like US Senator John McCain were obliged to admit as
being "smart". For one thing, Putin's gracious
magnanimity in the face of American provocations
shows the Russian leader to be a fine statesman and
human being; whereas Obama looks like a pathetic,
cheap nonentity. The outgoing US president is ending
his career on a low, grubby note, dangling between
the sewer and the gutter. In the season of goodwill,
the Russian leader is the one who rises to the
occasion with dignity. Obama, on the other hand, is
seen to be a tawdry tinpot.
But
there's another reason why Putin's response was
right. The unscrupulous Americans are trying
their best to antagonize Russia with slander and
deeply personal attacks on Putin's character. It
is a sordid display that is best left to fume in
its own festering pile of lies.
If
Moscow were to "stoop to that level", as Putin
put it, then that only tends to give the
Americans a false and undeserved image of
credibility. That's not to say that one must
always turn the other cheek, so to speak.
Sometimes self-defense and even retaliation are
justified and necessary. Nevertheless, there are
times when an aggressor is best dealt with by
letting him rant and rave, spit and foam at the
mouth. It then becomes apparent that the
antagonist has no credibility nor decorum. The
latest US-led media campaign to demonize Russia
concerning the alleged hacking of the
presidential election is transparently
mendacious. The American political establishment
including the dominant news media are shooting
themselves in the foot by piling up what is a
fake narrative impugning Russia. Sooner or later
this narrative is going to implode and be
exposed as a baseless propaganda stunt. We can
be certain of this outcome because there is no
evidence whatsoever to support the grandiose
claims of Russian cyber attacks. Obama has
staked the supposed authority of the White House
to accuse Putin of personally overseeing Russian
cyber operations.
As if
struggling to shore up some kind of
credibility in these tall tales, the
Washington Post ran a story over the weekend
claiming that Russian hackers have now gone
on to attempt disabling the US electric
grid. Despite sensational headlines and
bluster, there is not one scrap of
verifiable evidence of any Russian
interference.
As US-based political analyst Randy Martin
told this author: "The whole official
American narrative against Russia is based
entirely on wild, untenable speculation and
conjecture. And the US media have bought
into this nonsense like a stampeding herd."
Martin, who writes at crookedbough.com and
has expertise in computer hacking methods,
said the claims against Russia would be
thrown out of any court due to the paucity
of proof. He uses the following analogy to
depict how insane the official US logic
against Russian is. "It would be like
planting a gun in the vicinity of the White
House and then accusing Russia of a plot to
assassinate the president… The premise is
ludicrous."
Sure enough, Russia has repeatedly
dismissed Washington's claims as
asinine. And that's why Putin was
prudent to not escalate sanctions with
Washington. The American rulers want to
embroil Putin in a worsening
confrontation because when punches start
to get thrown around then in the ensuing
dust-up it can become unclear who the
real aggressor is. Moreover, the
resulting melee can make the aggressor
look as if he has some credibility. When
in fact, there was no credibility from
the outset.
Washington's allegations against Russia
over cyber interference, as with other
geopolitical matters such as threatening
Europe's security, are baseless. By
goading Russia into a response only
makes the baseless claims seem to have
foundation and thus permit further
demonization. When this "psychological
operation" – initiated by the CIA and
peddled by the White House and
mainstream media – collapses from its
own bombastic weight, the credibility of
the American political establishment
will be damaged beyond repair in the
eyes of its populace and the world. The
American political establishment is
already floundering from fake news
episodes and its failed attempt to
stitch up the presidential election
against Donald Trump in favor of Hillary
Clinton.
Trump is well aware that the
establishment is peddling the
"Russian hacker" propaganda
narrative as a rearguard action to
discredit him. And to force him into
an adversarial position towards
Russia.
The president-elect, who moves into
the White House on January 20,
praised Putin for his "smartness" in
refraining from counter-sanctions in
response to Obama's expulsion of
Russian diplomats last week. Trump
also returned cordial seasonal
tidings to President Putin. There is
a good chance that Trump will
deliver on his promises to restore
normal relations between the US and
Russia when he takes office and to
revoke all the sanctions that the
Obama administration has recklessly
slapped on Russia since the Ukraine
crisis in 2014. If Putin were to
have taken the bait brandished by
Obama, and then proceeded to eject
American diplomats, the dynamic
could have led to deeper
recriminations between Washington
and Moscow that even a new, more
amenable presidency under Trump may
not have been able to repair. No
doubt that was in the calculations
behind Obama's CIA-inspired gambit.
A broader point here is that US
hegemonic desires in
international relations are
fully dependent on demonizing
rivals and instigating wars. The
confrontation with Russia is
illustrative of how American
power really works. It needs to
create enemies in order to give
its own depredations a political
and moralistic cover.
Washington, its servile European
surrogates and their subservient
media may designate Vladimir
Putin and Russia as an "enemy".
However, Putin's discretion is
the better part of valor on this
occasion by refusing to play the
role being assigned to him.
Putin's stoic statesmanship
speaks for itself. Not so the
gibbering nonsense of Obama and
other Western stooges. Their day
of reckoning in the public court
is coming.
The views
expressed in this article are the author's own and do
not necessarily reflect Information Clearing House
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