FM Lavrov on Visit to UAE, Oman: Russia, GCC Members Inch Closer to Each Other in Times of Hard Choices

Andrei AKULOV | 03.02.2016 | 00:00

On February 1-3, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov is paying working visits to the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Oman, the members of the Gulf Cooperation Council, to discuss oil market and the issues concerning the situation in the Middle East, especially Syria. The top diplomat is to meet crown prince of Abu Dhabi, Mohammed bin Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan, and Oman’s Deputy Prime Minister, Fahd bin Mahmoud al Said, and Foreign Minister, Yusuf bin Alawi bin Abdullah. The Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) states are both an important market for Russian exports (including weapons, nuclear reactors, and railroads) and a source of investment into the Russian economy. Since President Vladimir Putin came to power in 2000, Moscow’s relations with the Gulf monarchies have improved dramatically. Russian President visited Saudi Arabia and Qatar in January 2007, and then the UAE in September of the same year. Gulf leaders have met with him in Russia on numerous occasions. There are things to unite the parties. They oppose various aspects of US foreign policy. Neither Russia nor the Gulf states approve of Washington’s support for Israel’s policies towards the Palestinians. Neither has been comfortable with the democracy-promotion efforts served to impose US vision on others. Furthermore, neither Russia nor the Gulf states (except for Qatar) were happy about the US suddenly distancing itself in 2011 from then Egyptian President Mubarak, its old time ally, President Obama’s support for Egypt’s elected President Morsi (whose Muslim Brotherhood connections sparked great concern among the Persian Gulf states) and reduced military aid to the subsequent Egyptian government led by Abdel Fattah Saeed Hussein Khalil el-Sisi. Russia offered to sell weapons to Egypt, and Saudi Arabia agreed to pay for it. It became obvious that Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and other Arab states were gradually shifting away from Washington towards Moscow. The GCC countries did not join the United States and the EU in imposing economic sanctions against Russia over Ukraine. * * * The relationship between the Russian Federation and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) stretches back to December 1971, when the Soviet Union and the UAE established diplomatic relations. In 1986, the Soviet embassy in Abu Dhabi was opened and the UAE embassy in Moscow became operational in 1987. The UAE-Russia relations in general have been going from strength to strength in recent years. The UAE has issued Federal Decree No 91 of 2013 ratifying the cooperation agreement with Russia in the field of peaceful nuclear energy. Also in 2013, the UAE issued Decree No 67 that witnessed the inking of an agreement on the protection of investments and relevant protocol. Several other agreements in the fields of double taxation, aviation, and coordination among the chambers of commerce have also been signed between the two countries. Russia has always emphasized its desire to benefit from the UAE’s proven advantages of open economy and advanced facilities and infrastructure. The UAE can be a major distribution hub for Russian products to the whole world. Investors in the Emirates enjoy many commercial benefits resulting from the country’s tax free environment and ability to seamlessly transfer money. Such factors amply qualify the UAE to be a vital market for Russian investments and industries. Last September Dubai Exports, the export promotion agency of the Department of Economic Development in Dubai, organized a five-day trade mission to Russia along with 36 UAE companies from diverse sectors. It also hosted business forums and bilateral meetings in Moscow and Saint Petersburg. They were attended by a large number of Russian businesses and senior officials, as well as representatives of investment agencies and local institutions. Participants explored prospects for cooperation in investment and trade between companies from the UAE and Russia in sectors such as pharmaceuticals, construction materials, cosmetics, food, detergents and consumer products. Engineer Saed Al Awadi, chief executive officer of Dubai Exports, explained why the relations with Russia were important for the UAE, «Russia is one of the world's largest economies and a huge consumer market of 142 million people, which makes it an attractive target for UAE companies. Dubai is witnessing exports to Russian markets rising and a 31 per cent increase was seen in 2014 compared to the previous year». The economic cooperation between the United Arab Emirates and Russia has not been damaged by Western sanctions. «The UAE complies with international laws introduced by the United Nations. This is how we regard such situations. I have not seen any sanctions from the UN for now», said UAE Economy Minister Sultan bin Saeed al Mansoori. Addressing the fifth meeting of the UAE-Russia joint ministerial committee at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Abu Dhabi, Foreign Minister Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan said the UAE maintains historic, friendly and special relations with Russia. These ties are stable and based on the spirit of mutual understanding and respect and a common desire to take them to new heights, he noted. The two sides reviewed a number of issues related to the latest regional developments, particularly the Syrian crisis. They also touched on current counter-terrorism efforts and the need for the international community to confront terrorist groups. President Putin applauded the UAE’s efforts in combatting this evil. * * * The Sultanate of Oman stands tall fending off the attempts from outside to influence its foreign policy decisions. A US-allied Gulf Arab state, Oman sees itself as a conciliator in a volatile region. Being one of the founding members of the GCC, it likes to keep its identity distinct and its policies independent. The implementation of foreign policy based on non-intervention and non-alignment keeps instability at bay and lets Oman hold a double-edged sword. For instance, it is the only member of Gulf Cooperation Council to preserve friendly relations with Iran. It also benefits the GCC with Oman acting as a mediator between the different parties. Egypt, Iran, and Oman enjoy friendly relations with one another; in fact, the latter two nations have entered into a naval pact that requires them to conduct military exercises together. The Sultanate also boasts special relationship with China. The ongoing conflict in Yemen is another good example. Oman is the only GCC member who has not joined the Saudi coalition. It is also the only monarchy in the Arab League not do so. The Sultanate is not mired in sectarian hatred. Oman, with Ibadi majority, views the escalation of sectarian strife between the Middle East’s Shiite and Sunni Muslims as a tragedy for the greater Islamic world. Ideologically, it has no rivalries. It's neither Sunni, nor Shia, but Ibadi. «We cannot work on peace efforts at the same time we would be part of a military campaign. Those two things do not meet», Oman's Foreign Minister, Yusuf Bin Alawi, told Reuters. «Oman is not part of that campaign for simple reasons - Oman is a nation of peace». Rather than joining Saudi Arabia in arming Sunni fundamentalists across the region to counter Iran’s extended influence, Oman has avoided taking sides in such conflicts, valuing instead a peaceful resolution. The Sultanate has leveraged its neutrality to develop trustworthy relationships with all sides in the Syrian and Yemeni crises, enabling it to serve as a legitimate and impartial mediator in ways that no other GCC member could. Last October, Oman's Foreign Minister Yousef bin Alawi and Syrian President Bashar al-Assad met in Damascus to show that Oman could play the role of a mediator between Syria and Assad's adversaries, which include Washington and other Gulf states. The meeting took place after Russia said Syria needed to prepare for parliamentary and presidential elections. Oman has received parties from both sides of the war in recent weeks. Syria's Foreign Minister traveled to Oman to meet Alawi in August and the head of the main West-backed Syrian political opposition met with Alawi in Muscat earlier in October, 2015. Last August, Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov during a working visit to Qatar held a meeting with Oman’s Foreign Minister, who had arrived in Doha to attend a conference of foreign ministers of the member-countries of the GCC. Sergey Lavrov and Yusuf Bin Alawi discussed topical issues of Russian-Omani relations, emphasizing the importance of stepping up ties and drawing on considerable cooperation potential in various areas. They also reviewed the current situation in the Middle East, including the conflict in Yemen, where Oman has been playing a useful role as an intermediary, and prospects for developments in the Gulf zone after the signing of the agreement on the Iranian nuclear program. On September 26, 2015, Russia and Oman marked the 30th anniversary of establishing diplomatic relations. On the occasion, foreign ministers exchanged greeting cables expressing their satisfaction for the high level of bilateral relations and constant coordination in international issues of mutual interest. The parties noted that over the past 30 years, the relations between the two countries have been constantly progressing and that is evident in the many bilateral cooperation agreements signed between the two countries, especially in culture and education fields. The joint communique establishing the diplomatic relations was signed on September 26th, 1985. In 2009 Russia and Oman signed an important agreement on nuclear energy cooperation that could see the two countries building reactors and conducting research together. Hopefully, Mr Lavrov’s visit will promote the conclusion of other agreement to boost the relationship. * * * With lucrative economic benefits looming to boost the promotion of Russia-Oman, Russia-the UAE ties, the security issue are doomed to steal the show. The US has announced its decision to deploy regular army components in Syria and Iraq, and Turkey is evidently preparing an invasion to create a «safe-zone» on Syrian soil. The Geneva talks on Syria are hitting snags on the way. The animosity between Saudi Arabia and Iran negatively affects the situation in the Middle East. A US-led intervention in Libya appears to be imminent. Russia and its GCC partners have to address complicated agenda of many points inching closer to each other in the times of hard choices to make. The ongoing visit to hold talks with the leaders of Sunni states proves that all the talks about Russia’s military operation in Syria making it «an enemy of Sunni Muslims» hold no water.  Source:http://www.strategic-culture.org/news/2016/02/03/lavrov-visit-uae-oman-russia-gcc-members-inch-closer-each-other-times-hard-choices.html

Dostojewski und die moderne Demagogie

„Der Idiot“ von Fjodor Michailowitsch Dostojewski / Федор Достоевский

ИДИОТ

„Ihr könnt nicht zweier Herren dienen.... Ihr könnt nicht Gott dienen und dem Mammon“ ¹

„Alles ist jetzt verkehrt. Alles stellen sich auf den Kopf und strampeln mit den Beinen in der Luft.“²

„Der Idiot“ (1869) ist natürlich keiner. Der Titelheld ist ein junger Aristokrat, der an Epilsepsie erkrankt, nach 5 Jahren Schweizer Behandlung fast geheilt nach Russland zurückkehrt, wo ihn die Erfahrung mit einer todkranken Gesellschaft wieder erkranken lässt. Die Charakterfigur hat nur entfernt etwas vom „tumben Toren“, vom Naivling 'Parzival'. Er ist ein völlig zu unrrecht für närrisch gehaltener Mensch, der der Gesellschaft seiner Zeit ihren Spiegel vorhält. Der gläubig orthodoxe Christ Dostojewski, der selbst ein hoch dramatisches Leben geführt hat, Epileptiker, Offizier, Journalist, nach Sibirien verbannt, einem Todesurteil knapp in letzter Sekunde entkommen, später in Wiesbaden dem Spiel und schließlich dem Alkohol verfallen, wie eine Romanfigur, das Vermögen seiner Frau verzockt hat, erschafft mit dem fürstlichen „Idioten“ Myschkin einen 'modernen' Christus. Lew Nikolajewitsch Myschkin verarmter, doch durch Erbschaft wieder zu Vermögen gekommene Adelssproß, der letzte seines Geschlechts, ist eine überirdisch gute Seele, ein äußerst warmherziger Mensch, dabei keineswegs naiv, sondern sich stets dessen bewusst, was er da tut. Hochgebildet, überrascht er immer wieder und konfrontiert die anderen Mitglieder der gehobenen Gesellschaft dermaßen durch sein bloßes Auftreten mit ihren Schwächen, dass sie es nicht ertragen, sondern ihn am Ende alle hassen, trotz seiner Liebe für fast alle, die seine Wege kreuzen, mit all ihren Schwächen.

Ein ganzer Abschnitt ist den jung-dynamischen Rebellen, den Nihilisten, den angeblich für Gerechtigkeit eintretenden Halbstarken gewidmet. Da wird mittels einer ihrer Pamphlete die ganze wahrheitsverdrehende, pseudoaufklärerische, pseudofortschrittliche Demagogie vorweggenommen, die unsere Zeit so sehr kennzeichnet: Menschenrechtsnihilismus. Unter dem Vorwand der Verteidigung von Menschenrecht und Demokratie, unter dem Vorwand dem Volke dienen zu wollen, ist den Anarchisten kein Verbrechen zu barbarisch, um es nicht zu begehen und es dann mit einem Mäntelchen der Redlichkeit und der Menschenliebe zu umhüllen. Eine Vorwegnahme des viel Schlimmeren, das noch kommen sollte und hochmodern.

Obwohl Dostojewski etwa die damals schon moderne „Frauenfrage“ im pseudo-progressiven Sinne ablehnt, nichts von Frauenemanzipation hält, so schafft er doch Frauenfiguren wie die Kurtisane Nastassja Fillipowna Baraschkoff, die in ihrer Komplexität ganz großartige Menschen sind. Ob als Opfer und/oder als Mittäterinnen – sie bleiben nicht ewig unschuldig. Sie demonstrieren aber wie etwa die Generalsgattin Lisaweta Prokofjewna Jepantschin, dass sie die Verhältnisse, so wie sind nicht akzeptieren können, weil sie daran zugrunde gehen. Wenngleich sie sich meist in hilfloser, ja hysterischer, kranker Weise dagegen aufbäumen.

Dostojewski ist einer der bedeutendsten Autoren der Weltliteratur. Sein Vermächtnis ist uneingelöst. Ich verstehe erst heute die unheimliche Faszination, die besonders dieser russische Autor schon auf mich als Schulmädchen ausgeübt hat, obwohl ich seine philosophische und psychologische Tiefe nicht annähernd zu erfassen wusste. Für das Studium der menschlichen Seele ist Dostojewski eine wahre Fundgrube.

____________

1 Matthäus 6/24

2 Jepantschin S. 439, der Idiot

There Is No Freedom Without Truth

Paul Craig ROBERTS | 01.02.2016 | 14:00

The military-industrial complex had learned that regardless of the protestations of high-ranking military officers, no cost-overrun, no matter how egregious, went unpaid. Armaments industries and military bases were spread all over the country and were important considerations for every senator and many congressional districts. The chairmen of House and Senate military appropriations subcommittees and armed services committees were already dependent on campaign contributions from the military-industrial complex and for cushy jobs should they lose an election. «This conjunction of an immense military establishment and a large arms industry is new in the American experience. The total influence – economic, political, even spiritual – is felt in every city, every statehouse, every office of the federal government. We recognize the imperative need for this development. Yet we must not fail to comprehend its grave implications. Our toil, resources and livelihood are all involved; so is the very structure of our society. In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists, and will persist. We must never let the weight of this combination endanger our liberties or democratic processes. We should take nothing for granted. Only an alert and knowledgeable citizenry can compel the proper meshing of the huge industrial and military machinery of defense with our peaceful methods and goals so that security and liberty may prosper together». – President Dwight D. Eisenhower. Dwight D. Eisenhower was a five-star general in charge of the Normandy Invasion and a popular two-term President of the United States. Today he would be called a «conspiracy theorist». Were Ike to be issuing his warning from the White House today, conservative Republicans like Senators Lindsey Graham (R-SC) and Marco Rubio (R-FL) would be screaming at Ike for impugning the motives of «the patriotic industry that protects our freedom». Neoconservatives such as William Kristol would be demanding to know why President Eisenhower was issuing warnings about our own military-industrial complex instead of warning about the threat presented by the Soviet military. The presstitute media would be implying that Ike was going a bit senile in his old age, a tactic the presstitutes used against President Reagan as he struggled to end stagflation and the Cold War. By January 17, 1961, when Eisenhower issued his warning in his farewell address to the American People, it was already too late. Cold Warriors had had their hooks into the American taxpayer for 15 years after the end of WW II, and the military-industrial complex had replaced «mom and apple pie» as the most venerated and entrenched US interest. The Dulles brothers ran the State Department and CIA and overthrew governments at will. (Read The Brothers). The Cold War was a profitable business that served many, and that is why it lasted so long. There was never any threat of the Red Army invading Europe. Stalin declared «socialism in one country» and purged the Communist Party of the Trotskyist element that preached world revolution. An accommodation could have been reached, except that for the first time ever the military-industrial complex saw that it could keep the war business going for decades and perhaps forever. George F. Kennan predicted that should the Soviet Union «sink tomorrow under the waters of the ocean»,another adversary would have to be invented. «Anything else would be an unacceptable shock to the American economy». When the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991, the «Soviet threat» was replaced with the «Muslim threat» and the «War on Terror» took over from the Cold War. Despite a succession of false flag attacks and warnings of a «thirty years’ war», a few thousand lightly armed jihadists were an insufficient replacement for the Soviet Union and its thousands of nuclear ICBMs. It was an uncomfortable notion that the «world’s only superpower» could not dispose of a few terrorists. So we are back to the Cold War with Russia. The propaganda is fast and furious. «Putin is the new Hitler.» «Russia invaded Ukraine.» «Russia is about to invade the Baltics and Poland.» «Putin is a corrupt multi-billionaire.» «Putin is scheming to recreate the Soviet Union.» These accusations become headlines despite US military spending being a dozen or more times higher than Russian military spending and the Russian government expressing no hegemonic aspirations. Eisenhower’s successor, John F. Kennedy, realized that the military-security complex was a threat, but he underestimated the threat and paid for it with his life when he stood up to the military-security complex. In stating this fact, I have joined Eisenhower as a conspiracy theorist. (For a hair-raising account of the threat posed to President Kennedy by General Lyman Lemnitzer, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, read chapter three in Richard Cottrell’s book, Gladio, NATO’s Dagger at the Heart of Europe.) Conspiracies are real. There are many more of them than people are aware. Many government conspiracies are heavily documented by governments themselves with the official records demonstrating the conspiracies openly available to the public. Just google, for example, Operation Gladio or the Northwoods Project. These conspiracies alone are sufficient to chastise those uninformed Western peoples who go around saying, «our government would never kill its own people». Perhaps Russian studies provided my introduction to government conspiracies against their own people. I learned that the Tsar’s secret police set off bombs and killed people in order to blame and arrest labor agitators. I was skeptical of this account and wondered if it was a reflection of left-wing bias against Tsarist Russia. Some years later I asked my colleague, Robert Conquest, at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University if the account was true. He replied that the story is true as is known from the released secret police files that are part of the Hoover Institution’s archives. False flag attacks are used by governments in order to pursue secret agendas that they cannot publicly acknowledge. If President George W. Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney had said: «We are going to attack Iraq and a half dozen other countries in order to exercise hegemony over the Middle East, steal their oil, and clear the path for Israel to steal the entirety of the West Bank of Palestine, diverting taxpayers’ resources from serving the American people into the pockets of the armaments industries and spilling the blood of your parents, spouses, children, and siblings», even the American sheeple would have resisted. Instead, following the famous advice of Hitler’s chief propagandist, they said: «Our country has been attacked!» Generally speaking, an observant person with a bit of education can recognize a false flag attack. However, few people pay attention beyond what the official media says, and the media no longer investigates and questions but simply repeats the official story. Therefore, only a few realize what has really happened, and when these few open their mouths they are discredited as «conspiracy theorists». This method of control might be wearing thin. There have been so many false flag «terrorist attacks» in the 21stcentury that there are now thousands of experts labeled as «conspiracy theorist». For example, the 9/11 Truth Movement consists of thousands of high rise architects, structural engineers, demolition experts, nano-chemists, physicists, firefighters and first responders, civilian and military pilots, and former high government officials. Collectively these experts represent far more knowledge and experience than the 9/11 Commission, which did nothing but write down whatever the government told them, NIST, a collection of people whose incomes and careers depend on the government, and the presstitutes who can barely manage arithmetic, much less the mathematics of controlled demolition. The neoconservatives, who controlled the George W. Bush regime, called for a «New Pearl Harbor» so that they could begin their wars of conquest in the Middle East. A «New Pearl Harbor» is what 9/11 gave them. Was this a coincidence or a Gulf of Tonkin or a Reichstag fire or a Tzarist secret police or Operation Gladio bomb? The charge, «conspiracy theory», is used to prevent investigation. 9/11 was not investigated. Indeed, as many experts have pointed out, there was a conscious effort to remove and destroy the evidence before it could be investigated. The 9/11 families had to lobby and protest for a solid year before the Bush regime consented to the totally controlled 9/11 Commission. The Boston Marathon Bombing was not investigated. A scripted story was issued and repeated by the media. The San Bernardino shootings were not investigated. Again, a pre-scripted story took the place of investigation. The success of false flag attacks in the US led to their use in the UK and France. The Charlie Hebdo affair was not investigated and the official explanation makes no sense. The story has been closed with all the loose ends dangling. For example, why did a French police official investigating the crime allegedly commit suicide in his police office in the early hours of the morning, and why was his family denied the autopsy report? What happened to this disappeared story? Why did the police finger a third participant in the attack as the «getaway driver» who had an iron clad alibi? If the police were so totally wrong about this member of the gang, how do we know they are right about the two men they shot to death. How come alleged perpetrators of «terrorist attacks» are always killed before they can talk? How come the only story we ever get is what the government says? How can people be so gullible after the Gulf of Tonkin, Operation Gladio, etc.? Apparently the Charlie Hebdo attack was insufficient for the purpose, and now France has had what is called «the Paris attack», an even more unbelievable event, evidence for which is missing. This false flag attack was too much for Kevin Barrett who assembled a collection of skeptical essays from 26 people into a book, Another French False Flag: Bloody Tracks From Paris To San Bernardino. Twenty-four of these contributors do not believe the official story. Does this make them «conspiracy theorists» or does this make them brave souls who are concerned that Reichstag fire type events are replacing Western civil liberty with fascist police states? Ask yourself, why are those trying to preserve liberty denounced? Dear Western Peoples, if you wish to be able to walk down the streets of your cities without being accosted by police, demanded to present identity papers, searched, detained indefinitely or assassinated without due process of law, if you wish to be able to express your opinion about «your» government and its use of your tax payments, if you wish to be able to discuss current affairs or your personal affairs without being recorded by the NSA or the equivalent in your own country or by both, if you wish to be able to act on your moral conscience and to protest the violence the West applies to Muslims and others unfavored by powerful Western interests, such as Palestinians, if you wish to live in the freedom that was achieved in the West after centuries of struggle, wake up, find time from less meaningful pursuits to become aware of what is being stolen from you. It is late in the game. If you do not stand up for truth, you will have no freedom as there is no freedom without truth.

Tags: Gladio Russia US Putin Source: http://www.strategic-culture.org/news/2016/02/01/there-is-no-freedom-without-truth.html

Russia’s 'Destructive Power' Greater Threat to US Than Daesh - US Official

News | 01.02.2016 | 18:09

Sputnik - Daesh terrorist group is not the mortal enemy of the United States, while Russia’s nuclear arsenal poses an extraordinary threat to the nation, US Director of National Intelligence (DNI) James Clapper said in an interview released on Monday. "ISIL [Islamic State] is not a mortal enemy of the United States. It can cause us harm and can kill our people," Clapper told news outlet WTOP. "It can’t inflict mortal damage to the United States…they don’t have the destructive power that Russia has." The DNI chief explained that although Daesh is a threat to the United States, the terrorist group "cannot impose the level of destruction on the US as Russia’s nuclear weapons, should it choose to." Clapper added he would make the case to the US Congress during the upcoming Worldwide Threat Assessment hearings that "a newly aggressive Russia, a belligerent and nuclear North Korea, Iranian proxy activities, and Chinese espionage," as well as terrorism are the new threats that Washington must address. The DNI head stressed that the danger the Islamic extremism poses would not be over after the defeat of Daesh. "Personally [I] think we’re going to be in this counter-extremist business for a long time," Clapper explained. "We’re going to be in a state of vigilance and suppression for these groups. If it’s not ISIS, it’s going to be something else." Since 2014, US-Russia relations have been in a constant state of strain, as the West has continuously accused Russia of aggression in Ukraine, following the reunification of Crimea, and has since imposed several rounds of economic sanctions. Russia has repeatedly denied the accusations and participated in negotiating the Minsk agreements for a peaceful resolution to the conflict in Ukraine. Daesh, is a terrorist group outlawed in many countries around the world, including the United States and Russia.

War in Syria: Russia’s 'rustbucket' military delivers a hi-tech shock to West and Israel

http://www.strategic-culture.org/news/2016/01/31/war-syria-russia-rustbucket-military-delivers-hi-tech-shock-west-israel.html

EDITOR'S CHOICE | 31.01.2016 | 21:53

Their army’s equipment and strategy was “outmoded”; their air force’s bombs and missiles were “more dumb than smart”; their navy was “more rust than ready”. For decades, this was Western military leaders’ view, steeped in condescension, of their Russian counterparts. What they have seen in Syria and Ukraine has come as a shock.  Russian military jets have, at times, been carrying out more sorties in a day in Syria than the US-led coalition has done in a month. The Russian navy has launched ballistic missiles from the Caspian Sea 900 miles way, and kept supply lines going to Syria. The air defences installed by the Russians in Syria and eastern Ukraine would make it extremely hazardous for the West to carry out strikes against the Assad regime or Ukrainian separatists. Lieutenant General Ben Hodges, the commander of the US army in Europe, has described Russian advances in electronic warfare in Syria and Ukraine – a field in which they were typically supposed to be backward – as “eye watering”. The chief of US Air Force operations in Europe and Africa, Lieutenant General Frank Gorenc, has disclosed that Moscow is now deploying anti-aircraft systems in Crimea, which the Kremlin annexed from Ukraine last year, and in Kaliningrad, an enclave between Lithuania and Poland. It is doing so, he says, in a way that makes it “very, very difficult” for Nato planes to gain access safely to areas including parts of Poland.  It is not just Nato member states watching the Russians with concern. Israel, too, sees the build-up of Russian weaponry across its northern border in Syria and wonders where it will all end. Their apprehension is that the advanced equipment already in situ in the Middle East will end up with Iran, viewed as an existential threat to the Jewish state, or with other Arab countries, thus eroding the air superiority that is Israel’s primary advantage over its neighbours. It is this military might that is underpinning President Vladimir Putin’s strategic triumphs. His intervention in Syria has been a game changer and what happens there now lies, to a large extent, in his hands. The Ukraine conflict is semi-frozen, on his terms. The Russians are allying with the Kurds, unfazed by the Turkish anger this has provoked. And, crucially, they are now returning to Egypt to an extent not seen for 44 years, since they were kicked out by President Anwar Sadat. One of the most senior analysts in Israeli military intelligence toldThe Independent in Tel Aviv last week: “Anyone who wants anything done in this region is beating a path to Moscow.” Mr Putin has relished pointing out the significance of the West seeing “for the first time that these weapons do exist, that they are of high quality, and that we have well-trained people who can put them to effective use. They have now seen, too, that Russia is ready to use them if this is in the interest of our country and our people.” In Syria the Russians have been conducting as many air strikes a day, up to 96, as the US-led coalition has carried out in a month. This is in marked contrast, Western military planners have noted, to how quickly Nato began to feel the strain when bombing Libya and Kosovo. One reason for the dearth of coalition sorties is that its Sunni state members are carrying out scarcely any missions, focusing instead on Iranian-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen. Operations by Turkey, meanwhile, have been overwhelmingly against the Kurds rather than Isis. Western defence officials also contend that the Russians are hitting other rebel groups in the guise of attacking Isis and that they are more indiscriminate in their targeting  because they are less sensitive to any evidence of civilian casualties and because of their lack of precision-guided weaponry. But Russia had never promised it was going to attack only Isis. Instead, it declared that “all terrorists” would be targeted. This, conveniently for Mr Putin and President Bashar al-Assad, has included more moderate rebel groups. Experience of the Chechen wars show that the Kremlin is, indeed, more prepared to shrug off “collateral damage” than the West. It is also true that there were not enough Russian guided bombs and missiles in the first stage of the Syrian mission: Moscow’s claim that it has used precision weapons alone does not stand up to scrutiny. The aircraft, missiles and bombs used at first were a mix of old, dating from the Soviet era, and relatively new. There are 34 fixed-wing aircraft based at Latakia: 12 Su-25s and four Su-30SM fighter-bombers; 12 ageing Su-24M2s and six Su-34s. There are also helicopters and an unspecified number of drones. However, more of the most advanced of these, the Su-34, codenamed Fullback by Nato, have been replacing older aircraft. One reason for this is that aircraft such as the Su-25, a veteran of the wars in Chechnya and Georgia, are vulnerable to Manpads – shoulder-fired surface-to-air missiles – which Moscow suspects the Turks and the Saudis have been supplying to Sunni rebels. The introduction by the Kremlin of advanced air-defence systems has gained impetus since the shooting down of a Russian jet by the Turks. The S-400 Triumph system is a source of great Israeli worry should it fall into “wrong hands”. This has an array radar that continuously monitors the skies, and a missile battery which can shoot down targets 250 miles away. One such array is positioned at the Russian base at Latakia and covers half of Israeli airspace. The deployment of Russian electronic warfare equipment in Ukraine and Syria, such as the Krasukha-4 which can jam Awacs and satellite radar systems, has been another sobering experience for Nato. Ronald Pontius, deputy to the US Army head of cyber command, stated: “You cannot but come to the conclusion that we are not making progress at the pace the threat demands.” Gen Gorenc, while bemoaning the proliferation by Russia and worrying about Nato’s capabilities, acknowledged that Russia was not breaking any international agreements and “has every right” to deploy these systems. In Syria, he said, the Russians were using “cruise missiles, they are using bombers. It is clear that they are desiring to show the ability they have to affect not just regional events, but worldwide events.”  That, indeed, is the point. The question for the West is whether to react to this by initiating a new chapter of confrontation with Moscow, or one of greater accommodation. Kim Sengupta, IndependentIndependent

Latin America Has to Fight and Win! by ANDRE VLTCHEK on Counterpunch

JANUARY 8, 2016 

"Our friends, our allies are not in the West - the Western Left does not exist anymore - They openly hate Russia, China and other non-Western nations. Frankly, they are racist - It is time to be focused and recognise:  
True powerhouses of resistance against Western imperialism: Russia, China, Iran or South Africa and in fact, even Latin America itself." Vltchek 

• Emai

For now, Argentina is lost and Venezuela is deeply wounded, divided and frustrated. Virtually everywhere in socialist Latin America, well-orchestrated and angry protests are taking place, accusing our left-wing governments of mismanagement and corruption.

What was gained during those years of hard work and sacrifices, is suddenly evaporating in front of our eyes. And there seems to be no way to stop the trend in the foreseeable future. Whatever magnificent work our governments have done have been smeared. Western propaganda and its local serfs belittle the achievements of our people. In several countries, revolutionary zeal has almost entirely vanished.

***

It is clear, even with an unarmed eye that great progress had been made. Those of us who knew Ecuador two decades ago, (then a depressing country, humiliated and torn by disparities and racism), are now impressed by its wonderful social services, free culture and modern infrastructure.

Indigenous people of Bolivia are proudly in possession of their own land.

Venezuela has been inspiring the entire Latin America and the world by its internationalism and determined struggle against Western imperialism.

Chile, step by small step, has been dismantling the grotesque legacy of Pinochet’s dictatorship, moving firmly towards socialism.

There are hundreds of great and inspiring examples, all over the continent.In less than two decades, Latin America converted itself from one of the most depressing parts of the world, to the most progressive one.A few years ago, it really seemed that the Empire had finally lost. There was no way that South Americans would want to go back to the days of darkness. The achievements of socialism were too obvious, too marvelous. Who would want to go back to the gloomy nihilism, depressing feudal structures and the fascist client-state arrangements?

Then the Empire re-grouped. It gathered its local lieutenants, its lackeys, and began striking back with deadly force.

All the means of imperialist propaganda were applied. The goal was to convince people that what they see is not actually real. Another objective was to subvert, to torpedo most of the achievements.

We lost elections? What nonsense!

It was clean economic and political terror unleashed against us, and it was the most vicious propaganda, which began forcing out the left wing governments of Latin America from power!

The world was watching, still demanding more Western-style “democracy”, more concessions. The West administered a “Fifth Column” that damaged Latin American revolutions, after infiltrating both media and brains in Caracas, Buenos Aires, even Quito. It consisted especially of the liberals and those so-called ‘progressive forces’; the same people who tried to burry the Cuban revolution after the Soviet Union had been destroyed by Western imperialism. The same people actually who were cheering the demolition of the Soviet Union itself.

They kept pushing for anarchism and for some formulae of “participatory economy”, in fact for their own concepts, for Western, white concepts, for something that most of Latin American people who fought and won their revolutions never asked for!

Jealous and petty, they hate the true powerhouses of resistance against Western imperialism: Russia, China, Iran or South Africa and in fact, even Latin America itself.

Latin American people have always been intuitively longing for big, strong governments, like those in Cuba and those that lately emerged in Venezuela, Bolivia and Ecuador. And their natural allies should have been those countries from other, non-Western parts of the world, with powerful people-oriented leadership, not some European and North American individuals representing grotesque and defunct movements and “intellectual” concepts.

In several countries, Latin America lost its way and again got derailed by Western demagoguery. Suddenly there was almost nothing left here of Chinese or Russian or Vietnamese ideas, nothing of internationalism, only Western soft liberal egotists and countless irrelevant marginal groups.

History was forgotten. It was simple, decisive and powerful action by China that single-handedly saved Cuba, when the island-nation was hit by the Gorbachev and Yeltsin disasters. I wrote about it a lot, and Fidel quoted me, agreeing in his “Reflections”.

It was the Soviet Union that stood in solidarity with almost all revolutionary movements of Latin America throughout the 20th century. And it was Russia that was backing Chávez during the countless Western attempts to overthrow his government.      

 Reject anarchism, liberalism and Euro-socialist concepts 

Playing with anarchism, liberalism and Euro-socialist concepts brought several Latin American revolutions to the brink of absolute calamity. South America is at the frontline. It is under attack. There is no time for the flowery theories. I know Latin American revolutionaries. I have met many, from Eduardo Galeano to several Cuban and Sandinista leaders. I also met many of the South American ‘elites’.

One day, not long after Evo Morales came to power in Bolivia, I spoke to a man, a member of one of the ‘leading’ families, which has in its ranks Senators, owners of mass media outlets, as well as captains of local industry.

“We will get rid of Morales”, he told me, openly. “Because he is a dirty Indian, and because we will not tolerate lefties in this part of the world.”

He was not hiding his plans – he was extremely confident.

“We don’t care how much money we have to spend; we have plenty of money. And we have plenty of time. We will use our media and we will create food and consumer goods deficits. Once there is nothing to eat, once there are food lines in all the major cities, as well as great insecurity and violence, people will vote him out of power.”

It was clearly the concept used by the Chilean fascist economic and political right wing thugs, before the 1973 US-backed coup against President Salvador Allende. “Uncertainty, shortages”, and if everything failed – then a brutal military coup.

In Bolivia the “elites” tried and tried, but they were not successful, because there was great solidarity with the government of Evo Morales, coming from socialist countries like Brazil and Venezuela. When the Right tried to break the country to pieces, pushing for the independence of the richest, “white” province of Santa Cruz, Brazilian President Lula declared that he was going to send the mightiest army in the South American continent and “defend the integrity of the neighboring country”.

It is beasts, and actually extremely powerful beasts, who are heading the “opposition” in South America.

And to be frank, we can hardly speak about an “opposition”. These are oligarchs, landowners, Christian (many from the Opus Dei) demagogues and military leaders. In many ways they are still the true rulers of the continent.

Nothing except brute force can stop them. They have unlimited financial resources, they have a propaganda machine at their disposal, and they can always count on the Empire to back them up. In fact it is the Empire that is encouraging, training and sustaining them.     ***

“Violations of democracy and human rights!” the “opposition” yells, whenever our governments decide to hit back. It is not that we are lately hitting back really hard, but any retaliation is packaged as “brutal”.

What do we in fact do? We arrest just a few of the most outrageous terrorists – those who are openly trying to overthrow or destabilize the state.

But when they, the ‘elites’ and their armies, came to power, they cut open people’s stomachs, and threw them from helicopters straight into the sea.

Their death squads violate children in front of their parents. Female prisoners are raped by specially trained German shepherds dogs, and tubes with starved rats are inserted into their vaginas.

Entire movements and parties are liquidated by fascist South American battalions of death (some of them trained in the United States), but we must use some nice and clean tactics and “democratic means” to prevent them from grabbing power again?

The white, racist, colonialist Christian implants from Europe have been forming so-called South American ‘elites’. They are actually some of the cruelest human beings on Earth. Thanks to them, before our latest wave of Revolutions, Latin America suffered from the greatest disparities on earth. Tens of millions of its people were murdered. It was racially divided. It was plundered. Its veins were, and to a great extent still are, open – to borrow from the terminology of the great storyteller Eduardo Galeano.

My friend Noam Chomsky wrote about it extensively. I wrote about it in several chapters of my two latest books: : “Exposing Lies Of The Empire” and “Fighting Against Western Imperialism”. Others have as well.

How can people still listen to those mass murderers, with a straight face?

One thing cannot be disputed: only a big and powerful government and its army could now defend its people. Latin American revolutionary leaders were given a mandate by the people, and they have no right to back up, to betray.

Indecisiveness could prove lethal.

Referendum after referendum, people expressed their support for the revolutionary Proceso, in Venezuela and elsewhere. Year after year the fascist “opposition” has been showing spite for the voices of the people, the same spite it has demonstrated for centuries.

Sabotage after sabotage was administered, one treasonous act after another committed. As was promised by the Bolivian ‘elites’, the Venezuelan capitalist bandits paralyzed their country by shortages. Even rolls of toilet paper became ‘a deficit’. All too familiar… Like in Chile before 1973!

The message is clear: “you want to be able to wipe your ass after shitting, then betray socialism!” Or: “You want to eat? Then down with the legacy of Chávez!”

The will of the people is being humiliated. The elites are spitting straight into the faces of the majority.

Some citizens are now voting for the right, simply because they are exhausted, because they are scared, because they see no solution. They are voting against their own will (as they used to in Nicaragua during the reign of Aleman), because if they vote for their own candidates, they would be made to eat shit, literally.

But solutions are there! They are available.

Instead of listening to some Euro-centric gurus from Slovenia or New England, the Latin American governments should ask for help and lean on such countries as Russia and China, immediately joining alternative financial institutions, forging defense treaties, working on energy and other deals with those who are actually standing up against Western imperialism.

Latin America should never lose its independence. But with proven good friends and true powerful alliances, independence is never lost.

Our leaders should shed their dependency on the Western Left. Mainly because the Western Left does not exist anymore, with some tiny, miniscule exceptions that proves the rule.
What remain are a huge army of “liberals”, and then a tremendous multitude of selfish beings defending their own interests and concepts. They are horrified of those who are truly fighting and winning; therefore they openly hate Russia, China and other non-Western nations. Frankly, they are racist. Such people cannot inspire or impress anybody, and so they are trying their luck at the distant shores, diluting determination and perverting the essence of the South American revolutions.

This is the time to be focused. South America should fight, with all its might. It is not easy, but its treasonous families, those who are destroying the precious lives of tens of millions of human beings, should be identified, arrested and tried. It should be done immediately! What many of them are actually doing is not “being in opposition”. They are interrupting the democratic process in their own countries, selling their homelands once again to foreign powers and international capital.

***

Mass media outlets that are spreading misinformation, lies and foreign propaganda should also be immediately identified. They should be exposed, confronted, and if their goal is to destroy the socialist fatherland, shut down. Again, this is no time for liberal niceties.

Freedom of expression has nothing to do with the freedom of using newspapers and television stations to spread fabrications, fear and uncertainty, or to call for the direct overthrow of democratically elected governments.

And in South America, entire huge international newspaper and television syndicates have been working for years and decades for one single and deadly goal – to smear and liquidate the Left, and to deliver the entire continent back to the racist, fascist foreign imperialist rulers.

It has all gone too far, and it has to stop.

A few months ago, I was riding on the impressive Sao Paulo metro system, together with my Cuban friend.

“It is much better than any public transportation network that I have seen in Europe or in the United States”, I exclaimed. “But people in Brazil think that it is total shit”, commented my friend, laconically.“How come?” I was shocked.“Because they are told so on the television, and because they read it in the newspapers”.

Yes, that’s how it is! Free art, including opera, given to the Brazilian public, is nothing more than crap, if one reads the mainstream Brazilian press. Free medical care, no matter how (still) imperfect it is, is not even worth praising. Free education in so many South American countries … New transportation networks, free or heavily subsidized books, brilliant parks with brand new libraries that are mushrooming in Chile and Ecuador… Financial support for the poor, the fight to keep children in school, the fight to save the environment, countless programs to protect indigenous communities…

Nothing, nothing, and absolutely nothing is positive in the eyes of the pro-Western South American propagandists!

This has become one huge counter-process, financed from foreign and local sources, aimed at discrediting all those great achievements.

False accusations  from those who have been plundering, for over 500 years

Corruption!!! That is the new battle cry of the elites and their lackeys. Accusations of corruption are fabricated or inflated against all governments of the left: Dilma Rousseff in Brazil, Rafael Correa of Ecuador, Nicolas Maduro of Venezuela, Evo Morales of Bolivia, even Michelle Bachelet of Chile. Cristina Kirchner’s back was almost broken by constant corruption charges.

But how on earth could anyone take such accusations seriously, if they are coming from those who have been plundering, for over 500 years, their own continent on behalf of Europe and then the United States and multi-national corporations? Like locust, the right-wing families have been looting all the natural resources, while forcing people into near slave labor. Under horrendous feudal and fascist rulers, Latin America was converted into the pinnacle of corruption – moral and economic.Nothing was left intact, and nothing remained pure. In order to survive in such a vile system, people had to bend, twist, and maneuver. Now these same bandit clans that have been destroying the continent are smearing, pointing fingers at the governments that are, step by step, trying to reverse the trend and serve the people.

The same bastards that were bombing restaurants and hotels in their own countries, planting bombs on passenger airliners, and assassinating thousands of innocent people, are talking about morality.Are our people, our governments, expected to reach, to achieve total purity in just one or two decades, after the entire continent had been functioning for over 500 years as a bordello of Western colonialism and imperialism?Are we going to allow ourselves to be on the defensive when facing those who robbed and raped almost everything and everybody in Latin America?

***

Yes, the people of Latin America were brutalized for several long centuries. They went through unimaginable suffering. They lost everything. But they never gave up. Since the holocaust performed by Spanish, Portuguese and other European barbaric conquerors, they have been rising, rebelling and fighting for their scarred land.

Pablo Neruda wrote a tremendous poem “Heights of Machu Picchu.” Eduardo Galeano wrote “Open Veins of Latin America”. It is all there, in those two tremendous works.

The fight goes on, to this very moment.

Most of the power is now, finally, in the hands of those who are determined to fight for the interests of their people.

We have no right to be defeated. If we do, hundreds of millions will lose their future and their hope.

Such an opportunity would not come back. It is here, for the first time in 500 years! Millions died to bring it here. If the Revolution is crashed now, it may not return in full force for who knows how many years. In simple terms it means that several more generations would be lost!

We have to counterattack now. What are we waiting for? Of what are we afraid? That the biggest terrorist on Earth – the West – would brand us as undemocratic? That the same West that has, for centuries, overthrown our governments, murdered our leaders as well as simple men, women and children would not give us its stamp of approval? That we would be criticized by those countries, which are still looting, violating, lying and ruining?

Our friends, our allies are not in the West. We all know how lukewarm was the support given to Venezuela, Cuba or Ecuador in Europe and North America by those “progressive forces”, and how hostile was the mainstream. We have to wake up and join forces with those who are now standing proudly and with great determination against Western imperialism and market fundamentalism.

There is no time for experiments. This is the fight for our survival!

As I wrote earlier, in order for the Revolutions to continue, we need big governments, determined cadres, loyal armies and mighty allies. We also need huge Latin American solidarity, true unity and integration. One monolithic South American block in fraternal embrace with other truly independent countries.

This is an extremely serious moment, Comrades! This is damn serious.

Anarchism and the concepts of the factories administered by workers will not save us right now.
Argentina has fallen, but Venezuela is still standing. Each creek, each boulder has now to be defended, be it in Brazil, Uruguay, Ecuador, Bolivia, Chile, Venezuela, Nicaragua or Cuba.We have to be tough, we have to be alert, and we cannot do it alone!
Venceremos nuevamente, camaradas!

Andre Vltchek is a philosopher, novelist, filmmaker and investigative journalist. He covered wars and conflicts in dozens of countries. His latest books are: “Exposing Lies Of The Empire” and “Fighting Against Western Imperialism”.Discussion with Noam Chomsky: On Western Terrorism. Point of No Return is his critically acclaimed political novel. Oceania – a book on Western imperialism in the South Pacific. His provocative book about Indonesia: “Indonesia – The Archipelago of Fear”. Andre is making films for teleSUR and Press TV. After living for many years in Latin America and Oceania, Vltchek presently resides and works in East Asia and the Middle East. He can be reached through his website or his Twitter.

Source: http://www.counterpunch.org/2016/01/08/latin-america-has-to-fight-and-win/

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