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Whether to Go to War Against Russia Is Top Issue in U.S. Presidential Race

by Eric Zuesse, via strategic-culture.org

The United States government has already declared that in regards to what it alleges to be a Russian cyberattack against the U.S. Democratic Party, the U.S. reserves the right to go to war against Russia. NATO has accordingly changed its policy so as to assert that a cyberattack (in this case actually cyber-espionage, such as the U.S. government itself perpetrates against even its own allies such as Angela Merkel by tapping her phone) constitutes an act of war by the alleged cyberattacker, and so requires all NATO member nations to join any cyberattacked NATO nation in war against its alleged (cyber)attacker, if the cyberattacked member declares war against its alleged cyberattacker. Excuses are being sought for a war against Russia; and expanding the definition of “invasion,” to include mere espionage, is one such excuse. But it’s not the only one that the Obama Administration has cooked up.
U.S. Senator Mike Lee has asserted that President Barack Obama must obtain a declaration of war against Syria — which is allied with and defended by Russia — before invading Syria. Syria has, for the past few years, already been invaded by tens of thousands of foreign jihadists (financed mainly by the royal Sauds and Qataris, and armed mainly with U.S. weaponry) who are trying to overthrow and replace the Syrian government so that pipelines can be built through Syria into Europe to transport Saudi oil and Qatari gas into the EU, the world’s biggest energy-market, which now is dominated by Russia’s oil and gas.
Since Syria is already being defended by Russia (those royals’ major competitor in the oil and gas markets), America’s invasion of Syria would necessarily place U.S. and Russia into an air-war against each other (for the benefit of those royal Arabs — who finance jihadist groups, as even Hillary Clinton acknowledges): Syria would thus become a battleground in a broader war against Russia.
So: declaring war against Syria would be a second excuse for World War III, and one which would especially serve the desires not only of U.S. ‘defense’ firms but of the U.S. aristocracy’s royal Arabic allies, who buy much of those ‘defense’ firms’ exports (weaponry), and also U.S. oilfield services firms such as pipelines by Halliburton. (It’s good business for them, no one else. Taxpayers and war-victims pay, but those corporations — and royal families — would profit.)
The U.S. government also declares that Russia ‘conquered’ Crimea in 2014 and that Russia must restore it to Ukraine. The U.S. government wants Ukraine to be accepted into NATO, so that all NATO nations will be at war against Russia if Russia doesn’t return Crimea to Ukraine, of which Crimea had only briefly (1954-2014) been a part, until Crimeans voted on 16 March 2014 to rejoin Russia. This Crimean issue is already the basis for America’s economic sanctions against Russia, and thus Russia’s continuing refusal to coerce Crimeans to accept again being part of Ukraine would be yet a third excuse for WW III.

THE U.S. PRESIDENTIAL CONTEST

Hillary Clinton says “As President, I will make it clear, that the United States will treat cyber attacks just like any other attack.” She alleges that when information was unauthorizedly made public from Democratic National Committee computers, the cyberattacker was Russia. She can be counted as a strong proponent of that excuse for WW3. She’s with Barack Obama and the other neocons on that.
She has furthermore said that the U.S. should shoot down any Russian and Syrian bombers in Syria — the phrase for that proposed U.S. policy is to “establish a no-fly zone” there. She makes clear: “I am advocating the no-fly zone.” It would be war against not only Syria, but Russia. (After all: a no-fly zone in which the U.S. is shooting down the government’s planes and Russia’s planes, would be war by the U.S. against both Syria and Russia, but that’s what she wants to do.) She can thus be counted as a strong proponent of those two excuses for WW3.
On the matter of Crimea, she has said that “Putin invaded and annexed Crimea,” and “In the wake of Russia’s illegal annexation of Crimea in early 2014, some have argued that NATO expansion either caused or exacerbated Russia’s aggression. I disagree with that argument.” She believes that the expansion of NATO right up to Russia’s borders is good, not horrific and terrifying (as it is to Russians — just like USSR’s conquering of Mexico would have been terrifying to Americans if USSR did that during the Cold War). Furthermore, because Ukraine is the main transit-route for Russian gas-pipelines into Europe, the coup that in 2014 overthrew the neutralist democratically elected President of Ukraine and replaced him by leaders who seek NATO membership for Ukraine and who have the power to cut off those pipelines, was strongly supported by both Obama and Clinton. She can thus be counted as a strong proponent of all three excuses for WW3.
U.S. President Obama has made unequivocally clear that he regards Russia as being by far the world’s most “aggressive” nation; and Clinton, too, commonly uses the term “aggression” as describing Russia (such as she did by her denial that “NATO expansion either caused or exacerbated Russia’s aggression”). To her, Russia’s opposing real aggression by the U.S. (in this case, America’s 2014 coup that overthrew the democratically elected Ukrainian President for whom 75% of Crimeans had voted), constitutes ‘Russia’s aggression’, somehow. Furthermore, as regards whether Crimea’s rejoining Russia was ‘illegal’ as she says: does she also deny the right of self-determination of peoples regarding the residents of Catalonia though the Spanish government accepts it there, and also by the residents of Scotland though the British government accepts it there? Or is she simply determined to have as many excuses to invade Russia as she can have? She has never condemned the independence movements in Scotland or Catalonia.
The United States is clearly on a path toward war with Russia. Donald Trump opposes all aspects of that policy.
That’s the main difference between the two U.S. Presidential candidates. Trump makes ridiculous statements about the ‘need’ to increase ‘defense’ spending during this period of soaring federal debt, but he has consistently condemned the moves toward war against Russia and said that America’s real enemy is jihadists, and that Russia is on our side in this war — the real war — not an enemy of America such as Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama claim. Both candidates (Trump and Clinton) are war-hawks, but Hillary wants to go to war against both jihadists and Russia, whereas Trump wants to go to war only against jihadists. Trump’s charge that Hillary would be a catastrophic president is borne out not only by her past record in public office, but by her present positions on these issues.
America’s Presidential campaign is dominated by Trump’s crassly vulgar obsession with sex, and by debates about whether his hiding his tax-returns is worse than Hillary’s hiding her paid speeches to corporate lobbyists, and her hiding her emails while she was Secretary of State. Regardless of whom America’s next President will be (either Clinton or Trump), it’s not going to be a good President, and anyone who thinks that these are the two best-qualified people to be contesting for the U.S. Presidency is either ignorant or else grossly misinformed — or else in sheer reality-denial. But all of those other issues are dwarfed by the top issue of this election: shall we have World War III? And that one issue is by far more important than all of the other ‘issues’ in this campaign, because it’s nothing less than an existential issue, regarding all of the world, and all of the future, which threatens the entire world within just the next few years, or even months, or maybe just weeks.
Americans are being offered, by this nation’s aristocracy, a choice between a marginally competent and deeply evil psychopath Hillary Clinton, versus an incompetent but far less evil psychopath Donald Trump, and the nation’s press are reporting instead a choice between two candidates of whom one (the actually evil Clinton) is presented as being far preferable to the other (the actually incompetent Trump), and possibly as being someone who might improve this nation if not the world. Virtually none of America’s Establishment is willing to report the truth: that the nation’s rotting will get worse under either person as President, but that only under Trump might this nation (and the world) stand a reasonable likelihood of surviving at all (i.e., nuclear war with Russia being averted).
Things won’t get better, but they definitely could get a hell of a lot worse — and this is the issue, the real one, in the present election: WW3, yes or no on that.
Hillary Clinton argues that she, with her neo-conservative backing (consisting of the same people who cheer-led the invasion of Russia-friendly Iraq, and who shared her joy in doing the same to Russia-friendly Libya — “We came, we saw, he died, ha ha!”), is the better person to have her finger on the nuclear button with Russia. This U.S. Presidential election will be decided upon the WW3-issue, unless the American electorate are incredibly stupid (or else terribly deceived): Is she correct to allege that she and not Trump should have control over the nuclear button against Russia? She’s even more of a neoconservative than Obama is, and this is why she has the endorsement of neoconservatives in this election. And that is the issue.
The real question isn’t whether America and the world will be improved by the next U.S. President; it’s whether America and the world will be destroyed by the next U.S. President. All else is mere distraction, by comparison. And the U.S. public now are extremely distracted — unfortunately, even by the candidates themselves. The pathetic Presidential candidates that the U.S. aristocracy has provided to Americans, for the public’s votes in the final round, don’t focus on this reality.
Anyone who thinks that the majority of billionaires can’t possibly believe in a ‘winnable’ nuclear war and can’t possibly be wanting WW3 should read this. That was published by the Council on Foreign Relations, Wall Street’s international-affairs think tank. They mean business. And that’s the source of neoconservatism — the top U.S.-based international corporations, mainly in ‘defense’ and oil and Wall Street. (Clinton’s career is based upon precisely those three segments, whereas Trump’s is based instead upon real estate and entertainment, neither of which segments is neoconservative.)
It doesn’t come from nowhere; it comes from the people who buy and sell politicians.


Investigative historian Eric Zuesse is the author, most recently, of  They’re Not Even Close: The Democratic vs. Republican Economic Records, 1910-2010, and of  CHRIST’S VENTRILOQUISTS: The Event that Created Christianity.

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Enrique Ferro
Enrique Ferro
Oct 29, 2016 4:57 PM

Ha, ha, is Putin behind the FBI reopening the Clinton’s email stuff? And is Obama sending a nuclear message now to Putin? The US pathetic leadership in its suicidal obsession to have Hillary as a President is running amuck and insane… Fortunately everyone can see it now.

damien
damien
Oct 29, 2016 9:11 PM
Reply to  Enrique Ferro

Yeah, right. Fact-free insistence on the “evils” of Clinton. Let’s do the latest stuff on the Huma Abedin emails.
The L.A. Times reports that the emails were not sent by Hillary or even directly to her.
The emails were not to or from Clinton, and contained information that appeared to be more of what agents had already uncovered, the official said, but in an abundance of caution, they felt they needed to further scrutinize them.
In other words, all of this stuff was already known.
Clinton had asked her assistant Abedin to print out some emails for her.
Abedin, for her part, found that it was difficult to print from the State Department email system, so she’d often forward emails to her Yahoo email, Clintonmail.com accounts, or even another account that she’d previously used to support the campaign activities of her husband, Anthony Weiner. And there was a lot to print: Clinton didn’t like reading long emails—the BlackBerry font was too small—so she’d often forward such stuff to staff to print. Deluged by tasks and information, Abedin reported that she’d often print and pass along documents to Clinton “without reading them.
None of this material was previously unknown to the FBI investigators. We have no reason to believe that any classified or sensitive material was in any of the batches that Huma decided to print up. As we know, just about everything on Hillary’s server was not of great consequence.
It’s beat up on beat up. A Republican Party load of baseless claptrap.

Greg Bacon
Greg Bacon
Oct 29, 2016 11:48 AM

I don’t understand the European idiots jumping in bed with the war mongering US. They’ve already have had two World Wars fought in their yards and now they’re clamoring for another, with Russia?
This WW won’t be fought in trenches nor will their be glorious tank battles, it will soon turn nuclear, laying waste to much of the Northern Hemisphere.
This is what Europe wants?
Poland is leading the way. Didn’t they learn anything from WW II, where England and France told Poland that if Germany invaded, they’d ride to the rescue, then went back on their promises when it did happen?
What kind of drugs are they taking or is it those large brief cases filled with USDs?

Wiremu
Wiremu
Oct 29, 2016 4:39 PM
Reply to  Greg Bacon

Quite so.
On the covert side the ramping up of hysteria and hostilities twinned with the demonisation of Putin and all things Russian to sell this war is very disturbing, partly because one can feel the machinations behind the scenes.
Overtly, the sudden presence of the sanctified White Helmets in Syria is too plastic to be real.
And it would seem that Anaconda 16 and it’s temporal significance went almost entirely unnoticed by many Western Europeans.
Where are the European leaders? What has been promised them? Have they been drugged?

JJA
JJA
Oct 29, 2016 7:38 PM
Reply to  Greg Bacon

The people of Europe certainly dont want a war. It is the bought and paid for politicians that kow tow to US wishes. Wherever you look – Blair, Rasmussen, Stoltenburg, all ex prime ministers who have done very well financially for themselves after leaving office when they sent their gullible armies to fight and die for america in the middle east and afghanistan.

damien
damien
Oct 28, 2016 10:23 PM

People need to get something straight about Donald Trump’s policy announcements — He says stuff.
His policies are largely undetailed, uncosted, impractical or unattainable by Presidential power (eg requiring laws by Congress).
On the issue of war with Russia or sending US forces to Syria keep in mind —
Despite a raft of neocons rejecting him as an uncontrollable, superficial sociopath with the attention span of a 7-year old child they will seek to influence him should he come to office.
He is a massive supporter of Israel and its policy is to take down the Assad regime. A key financial backer of US Presidential candidates that support Israel is Sheldon Adelson. He is backing Trump, as is AIPAC, the leading US Israeli lobby group, and the Jewish press. When Trump spoke some time ago at an AIPAC gathering over 15,000 Jewish Americans gave him a standing ovation for his uncritical support for Israel. He is on the record as against the Palestinians.
Trump’s foreign policy team includes: Joseph Schmitz, Gen. Keith Kellogg, Carter Page, George Papadopoulos, Frank Gaffney, James Woolsey, John Bolton and Walid Phares.
Phares is a notorious Muslim-hater who belongs to a neocon think tank. He was a major player in the Lebanese Forces, one of the Christian militias that fought in Lebanon’s brutal 15-year civil war and he has Israeli backing.
Frank Gaffney was the source of Trump’s dodgy survey that said Muslims wanted to kill Americans. Trump has named arch neocon James Woolsey — architect of the Iraq invasion — as his chief foreign policy adviser.
Long story short, Donald Trump is not an outsider. He has Israeli, neocon and Right wing backers jumping on board and they will be setting his political agenda. All of them want Assad gone. It is doubtful that he can control them.
His sociopath inclinations to punish his perceived enemies and his prurient interest in the process of a President using nuclear weapons should scare the hell out of anybody. This guy is very dangerous.

damien
damien
Oct 28, 2016 9:48 PM

The FBI is reopening its emails investigation of Hillary Clinton.
Following the announcement, leading Republican Paul Ryan renewed his call for US intelligence officials to stop giving Mrs Clinton classified briefings typically given to presidential candidates.
(I’ll bet he had fun with that announcement.)
On my reading Trump is going to win for various reasons, not all of them legal.

damien
damien
Oct 29, 2016 6:36 AM
Reply to  damien

The US Department of Justice has reportedly filed a criminal complaint against FBI Director James Comey for election tampering in regard to the new Hillary email claims.

Silliness
Silliness
Oct 28, 2016 4:29 PM

“Virtually none of America’s Establishment is willing to report the truth: that the nation’s rotting will get worse under either person as President, but that only under Trump might this nation (and the world) stand a reasonable likelihood of surviving at all (i.e., nuclear war with Russia being averted).”
Brainwashed much? Your mind a pathetic victim of US domestic propaganda much?
If you think in this utter Spectacle farce there is any difference between any two – not just Trump and Clinton – characters held up to be the POTUS you are literally a freaking moron. Seriously, you must need be spoon fed and have your diapers changed by a nursemaid. Seemingly, there is no existent upper – lower? – limit as to the degrees of how shamefully manipulated and controlled the minds of “intelligent” people in the US and elsewhere can become.
Literally, instead of understanding – finally after DECADES – that maybe just maybe the entire system is a farce/needs to be rejected and that we must start beginning this movement we have scores of people like Zeusse and others in the fake-left camp who fall into the trap of actually trying to point out differences between a war criminal and a literally talking piece of rapist trash b/c (OH NOESS!!) it’s really WWIII we’re all talking about THIS TIME!!
THIS TIME it’s REALLY different, huh? THIS TIME we have to make a choice between the two Spectacle characters. THIS TIME – just like all the other THIS TIMES – there is an issue that is so fundamental/”existential” to the well-being of common decency, democracy, life on Earth blah blah freaking blah that the “intelligent” people of the world once again have to put aside principle and contort themselves into the most embarrassing of knots – Trump is just crass? Hillary has a death wish for the world? – and – this is the important part – PARTICIPATE in the Spectacle themselves so thereby giving our overlords the “consent of the governed” the need so they system can continue on there being no reason for dissent.
Do you freaking morons understand the con yet? That by hook or by crook they will manipulate you into the falsity of the US Election Spectacle and thereby legitimize the system of your own oppression?
What is so freaking hard about this to understand?
Lastly, do morons like Zeusse and others not understand that there might actually be a very insidious reason for tying support for Russia and other saner foreign policy positions to a man who – now hear this – IS ABOUT TO LOSING IN A FREAKING LANDSLIDE the likes of which have not been seen since Reagan?
Gee, now why would TPTB tie sensible foreign policy ideas – again, Trump has demonstrated throughout his life ZERO knowledge about world affairs – to a man who is about to get crushed? Is it because he magically and secretly arrived at this policy position himself after forcing himself on 15 year olds over the decades or could it be to lump critics of US foreign policy to a carefully crafted pariah character?
Is THAT one too difficult for the likes of Zeusse et al to figure out, too?
Why, yes it appears to be.

Silliness
Silliness
Oct 28, 2016 4:32 PM
Reply to  Silliness

Typos, my bad:
” a LITERAL talking piece of rapist trash”
“IS ABOUT TO LOSE IN A FREAKING LANDSLIDE”

Silliness
Silliness
Oct 28, 2016 4:34 PM
Reply to  Silliness

more typos:
“consent of the governed” THEY need so THE system”
“could it be to lump/TIE critics of US foreign”

JJA
JJA
Oct 28, 2016 2:51 PM

“The real question isn’t whether America and the world will be improved by the next U.S. President; it’s whether America and the world will be destroyed by the next U.S. President.”
If America alone (aka USA) were destroyed, it would be wonderful for the rest of the world. Imagine, each country deciding for themselves without external meddling.
If Latin America as a whole, Europe as a whole and Africa were to join the Philippines in kicking US bases out and being very restrictive as to who gets diplomatic visas, the world would be a happier, more equal and safer place.