A Budget
Without Russians: The Empire’s Nightmare
By Fred
Reed
February 25, 2017 "Information
Clearing House"
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Methinks
the insane hysteria over Russia needs to stop.
It probably will not. For reasons of domestic
and imperial politics the American public is
again being manipulated into a war frenzy by
Washington and New York. It is stupid, without
justification, and dangerous.
The
silliness over Russia is, obviously, part of the
Establishment’s drive to get rid of Trump. Yes,
the man is erratic, contradictory, shoots before
he aims, backs off much of what he has promised,
and may be unqualified as President–but that is
not why Washington and New York want to get rid
of him. It is about money and power, as is
everything in the United States. Wall Street,
the Pentagon, the Neocons, and the Empire run
America. Trump has threatened their rice bowls.
Consider:
He has
threatened to cut the F-35, a huge blow to
Lockheed-Martin and hundreds of subcontractors;
to pull US troops out of South Korea, a blow to
the Empire; to end the wars, a blow both to the
Empire and the military industry getting rich
from them; to pull troops out of Okinawa,
crippling the Empire in the Pacific; to start a
trade war with China with a forty-five percent
tariff of Chinese goods, threatening American
corporations with factories there; and to chase
out illegal immigrants, an important source of
cheap labor to businesses. He has called NATO
“obsolete,” when leaving it would be the death
knell of the Empire; and threatened to establish
good relations with Russia, when the lack of a
European enemy would leave NATO even more
obviously unnecessary.
Thus
New York and its branch operation in Washington
resuscitate Russia as a bugbear to terrify the
rubes, meaning most of the public. Money. Power.
Empire.
What sense
does this make–apart from money and power?
Russia is an economically challenged nation of
145 million, less than half of Europe’s
population and much less than half of America’s.
Its economy is a small fraction of the combined
economies of Europe and America. It is not on a
war footing. It is not moving forces into
position for an invasion. It is not mobilizing.
To satellite photography, to NSA these things
would be as obvious as leprosy on a prom queen.
The Establishment would be screaming to high
heaven if there were the slightest trace of
preparation for war. The whole business is
manufactured.
I
frequently see the assertion that Russia
“hacked” voting machines to give the election to
President Trump. The majority who are excited
about this, I suspect the very great majority,
have not the foggiest idea what they are talking
about. Hacking to most people means something
they saw in a movie, with some bright kid going
clickety-click-click on a laptop and penetrating
NORAD. It is a vague menace lacking specific
content. To them I would say:
If you
cannot program in assembly language, you do not
know how computers work. If you do not know
TCP/IP from DHCP, you do not know how the
internet works. If you cannot tell a dictionary
attack from stack overflow, you don’t have a
housefly’s idea how hacking works. If you have
not investigated the various kinds of voting
machines to see what would be involved in
changing their vote totals, you probably ought
to take up stamp collecting.
This is
all orchestrated. So is the constant Putin
bashing. His sin of course is that he doesn’t
knuckle under to Washington. It is also the sin
of Iran, China, Cuba, and North Korea.
The con
is often silly. From time to time we see
screaming headlines headlines, RUSSIAN BOMBER
FLIES OFF AMERICAN COAST! Or somebody’s coast.
Recently it was A SPY SHIP! The “bomber” is
usually a Tu-95 Bear (NATO designation), an
ancient four-engine prop job, though a beautiful
aircraft, converted for reconnaissance. The idea
that Moscow would send one lumbering plane to
bomb America is too stupid–well, no, nothing is
too stupid.
Tu-95.
First flew in 1952. Yes, it can carry nuclear
weapons. So can a Volkswagen Jetta.
Then there
is the assertion that Russia hacked the DNC and
gave its emails to Wikileaks. This is possible,
but how would we know? (And would not revealing
misbehavior be a service to the voting public?)
Note that many people had an incentive to do it,
from disgruntled Democratic insiders to anyone
who stood to lose by Hillary’s election or gain
by Trump´s, to the Trump campaign itself, to the
many talented freelancers who just enjoy raising
hell. Maybe .1 percent of the population,
certainly not including me, have the expertise
and access even to guess intelligently.
If you
believe same intel agencies that lied us into
Vietnam and Iraq, and that apparently are very
much involved in anti-Trumpian machinations, you
are the Establishment’s ideal citizen. For
political reasons, specifically hostility to
Trump, they will say anything that suits their
purposes. and only inadvertently include the
truth. If this seems an extreme claim, reflect:
In 1964
the CIA was running various kinds of attacks
against North Vietnam, without admitting it. Two
intelligence vessels, the Maddox and the Turner
Joy, claimed that they had been fired upon by
the North. They had not, and if they had been it
would not have been unreasonable since the
United States was inserting teams of saboteurs
into the north. The result, and intention, was
to chivy America into wars which devastated
three countries and lead to millions of deaths.
It worked.
After Nine
Eleven, the government, using the intel outfits,
deliberately led most of the public to believe
that Iraq was developing the dread WMD, and thus
get the United States to attack for the benefit
of the oil industry, Israel, and the imperial
lobby. It was nonsense and Washington had to
know it. At the time Iraq was probably the most
watched real estate on the planet. The result
was destruction of an innocent country and the
bloody mess that is now the Middle East. Which,
note, had nothing to do with the interests of
the United States or the well-being of its
people.
All
of America’s wars are for the benefit of others
than Americans. Do you think you would be made
better off by a war with Russia? China? Does the
unending butchery in Afghanistan improve your
life? Would you feel more secure if
NATO–Washington’s puppet troupe–had bases in
Montenegro? Wherever the hell that is?
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The same
game is now being played with Russia. Almost
daily we read that Washington is sending troops
to Poland, Bulgaria, Norway to confront the
Russians, who are doing nothing that needs
confronting.
“US to Send 1,000 Troops to
Poland to ‘Deter Russia”’
Deter
it from what?
This morning:
“Germany Will Send Tank to Russian Border.”
A
recent move was to send naval forces to the
Black Sea, which is not America’s concern. What,
precisely, are those ships supposed to do? Steam
fiercely in circles, bowwow-grrr-woof? Do they
have a purpose other than domestic American
consumption? Are they to attack something,
defend something in danger of attack, forbid the
Russians to do–what?
Russia is
not going to invade Europe, and Washington knows
it perfectly well, so why put tiny combat forces
on its frontiers? If there is going to be a
deliberate war, Washington is going to have to
start it. Attacking Russia with minor forces, or
at all, is probably an idea nuttier than even
Washington can invent. One hopes that Europe
would not allow Americans to do what
they usually do, get others to fight its wars in
other people’s countries.
The danger
with letting pasty neocons in New York play
with military forces is that brinksmanship, fun
for fern-bar Napoleons, can have not-fun
consequences. If Washington puts naval forces in
Russian waters in the Black Sea, the Russians
will feel compelled to shadow the ships, to keep
fighters flying overhead. A mistake
occurs–mistakes do occur–and one side downs a
plane belonging to the other. The wounded side
feels obliged to respond. We have a shooting
war. In closed waters bordering Russia, the US
Navy would not win. Washington would then feel
that it had to defend its ego by expanding the
war. Wounded ego is important to the vast
combative vanities who so often rise to power.
And
there is no way to rein in these lunatics. They
send the military where they like, attack
whoever they choose, and we read about it after
it has been done. One could almost wish we had
constitutional government.
But I
dream.
Fred,
a keyboard mercenary with a disorganized past,
has worked on staff for Army Times, The
Washingtonian, Soldier of Fortune, Federal
Computer Week, and The Washington Times.
