Sunday, August 10, 2008

Ill Intentions

While you and I head to the beach, pool, mountains this weekend, a shooting war has sprung up not 200 miles from NATO's lines in the FSU republic of Georgia.

This is serious stuff.  Russia HAS no Loyal Opposition.  No peaceniks.  No San Francisco Left.  Russia is ALL business, murderous and barbarous, and MUCH more dangerous than the FSU.  In this moment of the "Chess Game", this most recent move is ALL about Iran.  And Russia is now CLEARLY supporting Iran with military assets, just in case anybody in Washington missed it.

This is Russia's moment.  The OECD countries are in a terrible economic position, and hence a weakening political position.  It has been my position that:

 an energy crisis = a food crisis. 

The price of oil isn’t merely about oil. It is about food, the U.S. dollar and power-politics. Westerners, however, are always “mystified” when the Russians seem to act contrary to their own economic interest (as if economic interests were the only interests). It is true that Russia has benefitted from high energy prices. More significantly, Russia will benefit even more when the U.S. dollar collapses. - JR Nyquest
You see, I am not the only guy that thinks the U.S.$ is on the ropes (and yes, it is still on the ropes despite the fact that the Euro is now falling versus the U.S.$.  Who said either one of these currencies survives?).  The difference is... I am just trying to make a living forecasting what's next in the markets... While Russia is trying to destroy the U.S. via its currency and the world wide price of oil.  Think me dramatic?  Yeah, well I think only a FOOL thinks that Russia is any improvement over the old U.S.S.R.  The guys running the Russian show have consolidated their power, jettisoned property, political, and human rights, clearing the decks to take full advantage of the energy crisis facing the U.S. over the next 5 years.

This is the world we live in.

Mentatt (at) yahoo (d0t) com 










7 comments:

Anonymous said...

The "Russian Threat" has always been pumped up larger than life by those that benefit from an external threat. The US was spending bazillions of dollars to "defend" against the awesome power of the USSR right up to the moment it collapsed. The CIA/NSA/ETC/ETC/ETC were all shocked, surprised, speechless in fact, when asked "How did you misjudge the threat so badly?"
Your comment about the Bush regime being too incompetent to pull off any significant conspiracy is a good one. Perhaps the FSU, which collapsed all by itself, is no more competent and able to mount such an awesome world wide threat?
Consumers of the USA MSM will no doubt believe all the hype of the 'Evil Empire - The Sequel' just as they still believe Saddam was responsible for the 9/11 attacks. (He really did have WMD, too: he hid them in the sand just across the border with Syria!)
It is all about energy; and the USA has already invaded/occupied two nations (can you say "War Crimes"?) in the oil patch. It is amazing to witness the Cheney/Bush regime doing exactly what they accuse 'evil doers' of attempting.

A Quaker in a Strange Land said...

Wow! Did you come up with that all by yourself?

Nope. that is the same, tired, dried up bullshit somebody spoon fed you and swallowed - HARD.

Why is it that Bush's insanity makes folks feel guilty enough to miss the intentions of others that wish ill upon us to their perceived benefit. Or maybe you feel we "deserve" a punishment for being so evil ourselves?

Speak for yourself, bro. For Millions of folks living north of a certain latitude in the U.S., this is hardly academic. Or perhaps you think that these folks, tax payers, veterans, AMERICANS do not deserve to have their government look out for their best interest?

Misjudging one threat does not suggest that others do not exist.

Anonymous said...

I hate to say this Greg, but Anonymous is right on this one.
I am US DOD, and the Russians are not near the transnational threat the FSU once was. They've shrunk to a regional power, one that abhors instability in their own backyard, and cannot abide by the "death by a thousand cuts" being inflicted via their once closely allied neighbors. The US plan is to surround and contain the Russians, a balkanization plan with a modern twist (see also Dick Cheney's 'Project For a New American Century', among others).

You are familiar with the US-backed Rose Revolution, right? You do realize that Nato (i.e., the US) has been providing training, arms, equipment, and economic aid to Georgia, and are supporting them politically?

This is an old fashioned Cold War style proxy war, pure and simple, being played out in the Caucuses.
Georgia sought to use the world's attention being centered on the Olympics to reclaim South Ossetia (de facto independent but de jour still part of Georgia since 1992), a classic "grab the Sudetenland" move if there ever was one.
The South Ossetians called on big brother Russia for aid, and Russia, a nation and people with a very long memory, wasn't having none of it.

A Quaker in a Strange Land said...

Russia ain't gonna invade anytime soon. IS that what you think I am talking about?

Direct confrontation is not in Russia's interest. They can accomplish their goals merely by destablizing the world oil markets.

Russia really needs, and REALLY wants, higher oil prices (and higher European Nat Gas prices, too).

Peakniks decry the U.S. poor response to our Oil import crisis, but don't seem bothered by how bad it could get - QUICKLY - if ANY event caused supplies out of the Gulf to cease, even for a few days.

WINTER is coming. It is hard to fathom how quickly heating oil shortages would show up. And that would be more than the inconvenience of no gasoline. No heat in Chicago, New York, Wisconsin, MN, MI, etc... would cause a political chain reaction of unimaginable consequences.

Russia does not want to HARM their export markets with military invasions, but it would be of little import to them if 100k Americans froze in their home one winter soon.

Me, I am one of those bottom line kind of guys. What is the difference between killing 100k with bombs or freezing, or starving them to death? Haven't sieges been a part of warfare for time immemorial?

Robert said...

We could have had a friendly relationship with Russia, but we just had to cultivate an antagonistic one to keep our military-industrial complex happy. That's Clinton's fault. Russia has a lot more business intervening in Georgia than we do in any of the places we're intervening.

Oil producers want high oil prices. Imagine that. We have enough oil in this country (and certainly in the US and Canada) for growing food and heating homes. The fact that that's not enough for us is entirely our fault.

I live in the Upper Midwest. If people up here suffer this winter (I mean physically, not financially) because of a lack of fuel for heating their homes, I'll blame the people in this country that burned oil frivolously, not foreigners.

Anonymous said...

Greg, for what it's worth, Mike Ruppert is in agreement with you, and I to some extent. But as Robert correctly points out, we walked right into this one, virtually egged them on in fact. What you sow you reap and in spades.

Anonymous said...

"We now live in a world governed by the black rule of oil which says that he who has or controls the oil makes the rules. The U.S. has no right to complain about this posture. It's the one we defined, adopted and set in motion after 9-11 and the one with which we justified our invasion of Iraq to secure control over the second-largest known oil reserves on the planet. Remember Dick Cheney's war that would go around the world and not end in our lifetimes?" - Mike Ruppert