{"id":60381,"date":"2016-11-02T14:57:21","date_gmt":"2016-11-02T21:57:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=60381"},"modified":"2016-11-02T14:57:21","modified_gmt":"2016-11-02T21:57:21","slug":"how-putin-derailed-the-west","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2016\/11\/02\/how-putin-derailed-the-west\/","title":{"rendered":"How Putin Derailed the West"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n\n
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By Mike Whitney\u00a0Courtesy\u00a0Information Clearing House<\/span><\/a><\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n

Nation state as a fundamental unit of man\u2019s organized life has ceased to be the principal creative force: International banks and multinational corporations are acting and planning in terms that are far in advance of the political concepts of the nation-state.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2014 Zbigniew Brzezinski, Between Two Ages: The Technetronic Era\u201d, 1971<\/p>\n

I\u2019m going to continue to push for a no-fly zone and safe havens within Syria\u2026.not only to help protect the Syrians and prevent the constant outflow of refugees, but to gain some leverage on both the Syrian government and the Russians.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2014 Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Third\u00a0Presidential Debate<\/p>\n

November 01, 2016 “Information Clearing House<\/a>” – “Counterpunch<\/a>” – Why\u00a0is Hillary Clinton so eager to intensify US involvement in Syria when\u00a0US interventions in Afghanistan, Iraq and Libya have all gone so terribly wrong?<\/p>\n

The answer to this question is simple. It\u2019s because Clinton\u00a0doesn\u2019t\u00a0think that\u00a0these\u00a0interventions\u00a0went wrong. And neither do\u00a0any of the other members of the US foreign policy establishment. (aka\u2013The Borg). In fact, in their eyes these wars have been a rousing success. Sure, a few have been critical of the public relations backlash from the nonexistent WMD in Iraq,\u00a0(or\u00a0the logistical errors, like disbanding the Iraqi Army) but\u2013for the most part\u2013 the foreign policy establishment is satisfied with\u00a0its efforts to destabilize the region and remove leaders that refuse to follow Washington\u2019s diktats.<\/p>\n

This is hard for ordinary people to understand. They can\u2019t grasp why elite powerbrokers would want to transform functioning, stable\u00a0countries into\u00a0uninhabitable wastelands overrun by armed extremists, sectarian death squads and foreign-born terrorists.\u00a0Nor can they understand what has been gained by\u00a0Washington\u2019s 15 year-long rampage across the Middle East and Central Asia that has turned\u00a0a vast swathe\u00a0of strategic territory into a terrorist breeding grounds? What is the purpose of all this?<\/p>\n

First, we\u00a0have to\u00a0acknowledge that the decimation and\u00a0de facto balkanization of these countries is part of a plan. If it wasn\u2019t part of a plan, than the\u00a0decision-makers would change the policy. But they haven\u2019t changed the policy. The policy is the same. The fact that the US is using foreign-born jihadists to pursue regime change in Syria as opposed to US troops in Iraq, is not a fundamental change in the policy. The ultimate goal is still the decimation of the state and the\u00a0elimination of the existing government.\u00a0This same rule applies to Libya and Afghanistan both of which have been plunged into chaos by Washington\u2019s actions.<\/p>\n

But why? What is gained by destroying these countries and generating so much\u00a0suffering and death?<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s what I think:\u00a0 I think Washington is involved in a grand project to remake the world in a way that better meets the needs of its elite constituents, the international banks and multinational corporations. Brzezinski not only refers to\u00a0this in the opening quote, he also explains what is taking place: The nation-state is being jettisoned as the foundation upon which the global order rests. Instead, Washington is\u00a0 erasing borders, liquidating states, and removing strong, secular leaders that can mount resistance to\u00a0its machinations in order to impose an entirely new model on the region, a new world order.\u00a0The people who run these elite institutions want to\u00a0create an interconnected-global free trade zone overseen by the proconsuls of Big Capital, in other words, a global Eurozone that precludes the required state institutions (like a centralized treasury, mutual debt, federal transfers) that would allow the borderless entity to function properly.<\/p>\n

Deep state powerbrokers who set policy behind the smokescreen of our bought-and-paid-for congress think that one world government is an achievable goal provided they control the world\u2019s energy supplies, the world\u2019s\u00a0reserve currency and become the dominant player in this century\u2019s most populous and prosperous region, Asia. This is essentially what Hillary\u2019s pivot\u201d to Asia is all about.<\/p>\n

The basic problem with Washington\u2019s NWO plan is that a growing number of powerful countries are still attached to the old world order and are now prepared to defend it. This is what\u2019s really going on in Syria, the improbable alliance of Russia, Syria, Iran and Hezbollah have stopped the US military juggernaut dead in its tracks. The unstoppable force has hit the immovable\u00a0object and the immovable\u00a0object has prevailed\u2026so far.<\/p>\n

Naturally, the foreign policy establishment is upset about these new developments, and for good reason. The US has run the world for quite a while now, so the rolling back of US policy in Syria is as much a surprise as it is a threat. The Russian Airforce deployed to Syria a full year ago in September, but only recently has Washington shown that it\u2019s\u00a0prepared to respond by increasing its support of its jihadists agents on the ground and by mounting an attack on ISIS in the eastern part of the country, Raqqa. But the real escalation is expected to\u00a0take place\u00a0when Hillary Clinton\u00a0becomes president\u00a0in 2017. That\u2019s when the\u00a0US will\u00a0directly\u00a0engage Russia militarily, assuming that their tit-for-tat encounters will be contained within Syria\u2019s borders.\u00a0\u00a0It\u2019s a risky plan, but it\u2019s\u00a0the next logical\u00a0step in this bloody fiasco. Neither party wants a nuclear war, but Washington believes that doing nothing is tantamount to backing down, therefore, Hillary and her neocon advisors can be counted on to up the ante. No-fly zone\u201d, anyone?<\/p>\n

The assumption is that eventually, and with enough pressure, Putin will throw in the towel. But this is another miscalculation. Putin is not in Syria because he wants to be nor is he there because he values his friendship with Syrian President Bashar al Assad. That\u2019s not it at all. Putin is in Syria because he has no choice. Russia\u2019s national security is at stake. If Washington\u2019s strategy of deploying terrorists to topple Assad succeeds, then the same ploy will be attempted in Iran and Russia. Putin knows this, just\u00a0like he knows that the scourge of foreign-backed terrorism can decimate entire regions like Chechnya.\u00a0He knows that it\u2019s better for him to kill these extremists in\u00a0Aleppo\u00a0than it will be in Moscow. So he can\u2019t\u00a0back down, that\u2019s not an option.<\/p>\n

But, by the same token, he can compromise, in other words, his goals and the goals of Assad do not perfectly coincide. For example, he could very well make territorial\u00a0concessions to the US for the sake of peace that Assad might not support.<\/p>\n

But why would he do that? Why wouldn\u2019t he\u00a0continue to fight until every inch of Syria\u2019s sovereign territory is recovered?<\/p>\n

Because it\u2019s not in Russia\u2019s national interest to do so, that\u2019s why. Putin has never tried to conceal the fact that he\u2019s in Syria to protect Russia\u2019s national security. That\u2019s his main objective.\u00a0\u00a0But he\u2019s not an idealist, he\u2019s a pragmatist\u00a0who\u2019ll do whatever\u00a0he has to\u00a0to end the war ASAP. That means compromise.<\/p>\n

This doesn\u2019t matter to the Washington warlords\u2026.yet. But it will eventually. Eventually there will be an accommodation of some sort. No one is going to get everything they want, that much is certain. For example, it\u2019s impossible to imagine that Putin would launch a war on Turkey to recover the territory that Turkish troops now occupy in N Syria. In fact, Putin may have already\u00a0conceded as much to Turkish president Tayyip Erdogan in their recent meetings.\u00a0But that doesn\u2019t mean that Putin doesn\u2019t have his red lines. He does.\u00a0\u00a0Aleppo is a red line. Turkish troops will not be allowed to enter Aleppo.<\/p>\n

The western corridor, the industrial and population centers are all red lines. On these, there will be no compromise. Putin will help Assad remain in power and keep the country largely intact. But will Turkey control sections in the north, and will the US control sections in the east?<\/p>\n

Probably. This will have to be worked out in negotiations, but its unlikely that the country\u2019s borders\u00a0will be\u00a0the same as they were\u00a0before the war broke out. Putin will undoubtedly settle for a halfloaf provided the fighting ends and security is restored.\u00a0In any event, he\u2019s not going to hang around until the last dog is hung.<\/p>\n

Unfortunately, we\u2019re a long way from any settlement in Syria, mainly because\u00a0Washington is nowhere near accepting the fact that its project to rule the world has been derailed. That\u2019s the crux of the matter, isn\u2019t it? The bigshots who run the country are still in denial. It hasn\u2019t sunk in yet that the war is lost and that their nutty jihadist-militia plan has failed.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s going to take a long time before Washington gets the message that the world is no longer its oyster. The sooner they figure it out, the better it\u2019ll be for everyone.<\/p>\n

Mike Whitney lives in Washington state. He is a contributor to\u00a0Hopeless: Barack Obama and the Politics of Illusion<\/a>\u00a0(AK Press).\u00a0Hopeless is also available in a\u00a0Kindle edition<\/a>.\u00a0He can be reached at\u00a0fergiewhitney@msn.com<\/a>.<\/em><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

Click for<\/strong> Spanish<\/a>, German<\/a>, Dutch<\/a>, Danish<\/a>, French<\/a>, translation- Note- Translation may take a moment to load.<\/em><\/p>\n

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By Mike Whitney\u00a0Courtesy\u00a0Information Clearing House Nation state as a fundamental unit of man\u2019s organized life has ceased to be the principal creative force: International banks and multinational corporations are acting and planning in terms that are far in advance of the political concepts of the nation-state.\u201d \u2014 Zbigniew Brzezinski, Between Two Ages: The Technetronic Era\u201d, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-60381","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60381","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=60381"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60381\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=60381"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=60381"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=60381"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}