Category: Geopolitics

A Baltic Sea Whodunnit

This week, some “state actor” still unknown but widely suspected to be backed by the United States, blew up the Nord Stream pipelines from Russia to Germany, both Nord Stream 1, which had been in service until this summer, and Nord Stream 2, which the US blocked Germany from using prior to the start of the Ukraine war this winter. 

The United States has long opposed the very existence of these pipelines and has made it quite clear that it doesn’t want anyone, especially not European countries, buying oil and gas from Russia.  

Oddly enough, America’s spokespeople are staying mum on the matter now that the much hated pipelines are out of commission.  They haven’t even blamed Russia for it, although this is probably because they’d be laughed off the world stage if they did.  

Poland’s former foreign minister Radoslaw Sikorsky was a bit more forthcoming.  “Thank you, USA,” he tweeted the next day,  posting a link to a video clip from back in February in which President Joe Biden all but threatened to destroy Nord Stream 2.  The clip is quite extraordinary actually.  Biden said then, “If Russia invades… then there will be no longer a Nord Stream 2. We will bring an end to it.”  When the reporter asked how he would do that considering that the pipelines are “in Germany’s control,” Biden doubled down as he so often does and concluded, “I promise you, we can do it.”  

So the United States promised to destroy the pipeline (“there will be no longer a Nord Stream 2”), and then it happened, and yet we are expected to believe that it wasn’t the United States who did it?  Surely the world is not so gullible as all that.  Except in the EU where it’s apparently in their interest to be gullible, at least when the US is doing the talking. According to the logic of one German politician quoted in the Guardian, a NATO ally would not have carried out the attack for fear of “political backlash,” hence it had to be the Russians.  Such a brilliant surmise–and evidence free, too!

We will probably never be allowed to know for sure whodunnit, for the obvious reason that were the truth known, there might be some “political backlash” on both sides of the Atlantic, and naturally, we can’t have that.  But the fact is, if the US did do it, then they’re responsible for a huge act of sabotage against their own ally, without apparent notice or any kind of compensation.  And that is almost certainly a crime under someone’s rule of law, even if the United States doesn’t feel compelled to abide by it.

How To Unify The Country

When divisions reign between the people, and there are sides, and each side hates the other, things can get very heated.  Consider the old truism that the worst feuds are family feuds.  Well, here in America, we used to be Americans but now we’re Good Americans and Bad Americans, and, if news media is any indication, we despise each other.  Moreover, we have had four straight years of this hatred.  I lived through the entire 1960s, but even during that similarly divided time, I never feared for the Republic.  Today, people are evoking the Civil War as a comparable period. 

Now cynics know that America’s current division does not have to lead to civil strife.  Our hatred for each other could be united into hatred for a third party somewhere else — a Russia, for instance, which Americans are accustomed to hating from at least the time of the Bolshevik Revolution, if not before.

What are we talking about here?  War, pure and simple.  Wars have a unifying effect on the populace.  It’s simpler to hate a foreign enemy, exciting even, and there aren’t the moral issues you have to deal with when hating your neighbors.  For whatever reason, people tend to fall for it.  By people, I mean the press and a significant number of the nation’s citizens.  There’s an added benefit for presidents, in the form of another truism:  “You can’t criticize the president during wartime.”  That was the story they told us with George W. Bush, and it worked!

Using war as a diversion to pacify the people is not a new device.  While reading about 16th century essayist Michel de Montaigne, I ran across a surprising example of the unifying effect of a common enemy on a warring populace.  Essentially, the France of his day was immersed in a brutal and bloody civil war between the Catholics and the Protestants, filled with massacres and torture and all the rest.  It was the definition of internecine strife, and there seemed to be no stopping it.  The people warred on for the better part of 30 years.  

So what finally ended the killing?  Why, a foreign enemy, of course.

Henri IV, a strong king in contrast to the weak monarchs who had preceded him, took the throne of France, after which he promptly started a war with Spain who had been funding an insurgency in parts of France.  It was a brilliant move.  The Spanish didn’t mind since fighting wars was about all they did in Europe then.  Meanwhile, the citizenry were forced to shift their attention to the war effort, as all the men were drafted into the military.  With the men out fighting the Spanish, there was no one left to commit atrocities at home, and the civil war that had consumed the country for more than a generation quickly ended.

That makes it all seem very tidy, but really, it must have been horrible to live in the 1500s.  They had their own pandemic (the Plague), extreme division between people, major economic hardship, and weak leadership at the top. Oh wait, that could be today…   

Returning to the point, the past is tidy, but the present is always uncertain.  While there’s no indication that Biden is going to start a foreign war, we shouldn’t be surprised if he does.  After all, his banner is Unity.  

The DNC Vs Everybody – A Footnote to Russiagate

Dutch Roundel with Justice - Metropolitan Museum of Art / CC0 - Creative Commons CC0 1.0 Universal Public Domain Dedication

Those following the Julian Assange story probably already know about the recent ruling in the DNC email case. This is the one where the DNC sued Russia, the Trumpies, and Wikileaks over their stolen emails. They said it was racketeering. The judge said it wasn’t and dismissed the case. With prejudice meaning they even can’t file it again.

This was such a bummer to the DNC that they initially had nothing to say. The next day, they managed to mumble a few words about what a shame it was that free speech trumps the sanctity of our elections, or words to that effect. A few news outlets covered it and then the story faded away. Which is odd because it was kind of a big story — one wonders how it would have been covered had the ruling gone the other way.
Read More

Poking the Hornet’s Nest in the Middle East

Mk-17 Theronuclear Bomb

President Donald Trump is now focusing all his attention on the Middle East, and this is causing the rest of the world to look there too. It’s also causing Middle Eastern nations to look at themselves and take sides. Since there are at least two major factions, led by the Saudis and the Iranians respectively, one would expect that a US invasion of Iran would lead other Middle Eastern countries to get involved on one side or the other. As a spokesman for Iran said last night, one bullet could set the whole region ablaze and US interests with it. Read More

Vermont Writer Questions Humanitarian Crisis in Venezuela

Vermont writer Peter Lackowski has visited Venezuela five times since 2005, giving him perspective on the current situation in the country and how it evolved over time. His new article, “Eyewitness in Venezuela: a 14-year Perspective,” calls into question the official story of a grave humanitarian crisis, which the United States says is due to Maduro’s corrupt leadership and which provides America with an excuse to attempt regime change in that country. Read More

Governing by Decree: Presidential Power in the Age of Trump

Donald Trump

If it seems as though the US President is the boss of the whole world, it’s because in many ways, he is. Presidential powers for modern presidents are prodigious. With the power to impose sanctions and tariffs, control the government through executive orders, and order military action, a determined president can create a lot of geopolitical mayhem. Read More

Globalization, Coups, and the Consequences of Voting No

The United States government is currently attempting to effect “regime change” in Venezuela. To put it bluntly, we’re attempting to overthrow their government and install our own guy. The government, led by President Maduro, is socialist, i.e., on the left side of politics. The right wing “opposition” is led by a 35 year old newcomer named Guaido, who was educated in Washington, DC at George Washington University and wants to pursue the kinds of neoliberal, capitalist-friendly policies that are in favor in the US and EU. The President was duly elected. Opposition leader Guaido has simply declared himself “interim” president. The United States, and all the other globalized economies (Canada, France, England, Germany) have instantly “recognized” this self-appointed leader as the legitimate ruler of Venezuela. No votes were deemed necessary. Read More