Dear Russia: An Enemy Is Not A Partner

By Paul Craig Roberts

September 07, 2017 "Information Clearing House" - Russians are concerned about Washington’s arbitrary closing of their San Francisco consulate and the illegal searching of diplomatic properties. There is no question that Washington has violated diplomatic protections and international law.

Why did Washington show its outlaw face to the world?

Was it to show that as strong as Russia is, Russia cannot protect herself from Washington? No international law, no diplomatic immunity can stand in Washington’s way. Washington can violate all law with no consequence.
Washington’s view is that might, and only might, makes right. Law is thrown out of the window, so why does Russia rely on law in her dealings with Washington?

Was it to plant some fake evidence in the Russian properties of Russian complicity in the US presidential election that elected a candidate that prefered peace over conflict with Russia?

Russia’s foreign minister Lavrov has told the US Secretary of State that Russia is going to sue over the seizure and search of Russia’s diplomatic properties. So, here we see again the Russians trying to deal with Washington through law, courts, diplomacy, whatever, and not facing the real issue.

What is the real issue?

The Real Issue is that the US military/security complex, the most powerful component of the US government, has decided that Russia is the ENEMY that justifies its $1,000 billion annual budget and the power that goes with it.

In other words, Russia is designated America’s Number One Enemy, and there is nothing whatsoever Russian diplomacy, Russian measured responses, and Russian references to her enemy as her “partner” can do about it.

Dear Russia, you must understand that you have been assigned the role of “the Enemy.”

Yes, of course, there is no objective reason for Russia being designated America’s enemy. Nevertheless, that is Russia’s designation. Washington has no interest in any facts. Washington is ruled by a shadow government and the deep state, consisting of the CIA, the military/security complex, and financial interests. These interests support US world hegemony, both financial and military. Russia and China are in the way of these powerful interest groups.

The case against Russia becomes more absurd by the day. Newsweek just published a story that suggests Russia is behind the Boston Marathon Bombing.

Russia can’t do anything about her designation as Enemy Number One.

So, what can Russia do?

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All Russia can do is to turn her back to the West, while watching very closely for the coming suprise attack. There is nothing in America for Russia. Any American investment in Russia will be used to damage Russia. Russia does not need any American capital. The Russian central bank’s belief in Russia’s need for foreign capital is proof of the successful brainwashing of Russian economists by American neoliberalism during the Yeltsin era. The Russian central bank is so brainwashed that it is incapable of understanding that the Russian central bank can finance Russian development without any foreign loans. The Russian government still doesn’t seem to understand that the only reason sanctions can be imposed on Russia is because Russia is ensnared in the Western financial system. The economic advice that the Russian government gets from its brainwashed neoliberal economists serves Washington’s interests, not Russia’s.

Russia should not be using Western financial clearing mechanisms that serve Washington’s interests.

When will the Russian government cease pretending that its enemy is its partner?

Why can’t the Russian government recognize the reality that stares her in the face, that continually insults and abuses Russia?

Why is Russia so determined to be part of the corrupt and declining West that Russia accepts every insult, every abuse?

The West has room for only one autonomous power. There is no room for a second.

China, intent on being rich like capitalists, also seems unrealistic in its dealings with Washington.

The orchestrated “Korean crisis” is not about North Korea. It is an orchestration that lets Washington put nuclear missile bases on China’s border, just as the orchestrated “Iranian crisis” was the excuse for putting nuclear missile bases on Russia’s borders.

Russia cannot be both sovereign and part of the West, and China cannot afford to confuse self-preservation with economic deals with America.

If the two powers capable of constraining Washington’s unilateralism show confusion over the consequences, they will make war more likely.

Dr. Paul Craig Roberts was Assistant Secretary of the Treasury for Economic Policy and associate editor of the Wall Street Journal. He was columnist for Business Week, Scripps Howard News Service, and Creators Syndicate. He has had many university appointments. His internet columns have attracted a worldwide following. Roberts' latest books are The Failure of Laissez Faire Capitalism and Economic Dissolution of the West, How America Was Lost, and The Neoconservative Threat to World Order.

The views expressed in this article are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of Information Clearing House.