At Ft Russ, there is an erudite Russian gentleman writes level, common sense. Far from the overweening personality typical of the western pundit, Mr Eduard Popov is level, honest, one could even say humble, when presenting carefully considered insights well worth taking in.
This (yours truly) polymorph, for most part inclined to multiple manifestations in form of cynic, satirist, on rare occasion the playful jester, but often persona of crude assassin/social critic via lampoon, should tread carefully when correcting one so worthy as Mr Popov.
I would hope it might be said of today’s result “Ronald does, time to time, show his better side.” I suppose I could have simply said ‘I hope I can accomplish this with respect.’
In Mr Popov’s otherwise excellent article “If the U.S. Wants War in Syria, It Will Get War in Ukraine”, where clear case is laid out NATO in Europe would be rolled over as he says ‘like a knife through butter’ there is the one small paragraph or conclusion this analyst takes exception to:
“The main point is that Russia has been and remains the only state capable of destroying the United States if things ever reach the point of a nuclear conflict. It is unlikely that the American establishment would take such a suicidal step no matter how great the temptation might be to commit to a nuclear strike on Russia”
Concerning this presumption of rationality on the American leadership’s part, Friday the 13th seems an auspicious date to point out rationality is not this western liberal democracy’s strong suite. Follows, is the not-so-small matter in which I am compelled to correct Mr Popov, relating to the present state of NATO in its pursuit of demonizing Russia; in what amounts to a western media demagoguery or rousing speech to incite ignorant crowd to lynch innocents.
Prior to laying out the gist of the USA’s psychology in this regard, let me be clear this not so small misapprehension of reality by Eduard Popov is perfectly understandable; as it does seem in the USA itself there is large inability, among otherwise intelligent Americans, to grasp a peculiar darkness where a foremost world authority on a radical religious cult overtaken the American security structures, that is the founder and director of the Military Religious Freedom Foundation, can as matter of fact answer the question posed by Cenk Uygur:
“You’re telling me 28 to 34 percent of our military want 7 billion people to die” [believe in literal Armageddon]
“The simple answer is affirmative”
This simple but startling fact is made only worse because the overall percentage doesn’t reflect the percentage actually appears to be higher, very much higher, in the USA military officer corps, and a bit less in the rank and file.
Backing up, to reconstruct or condense a bit of national biography, what our friends in Russia cannot have experienced, and consequently cannot know, is effect of history where the jails & lunatic asylums of Western Europe had been emptied into what was to become the USA, all to become hybridized with Europe’s banished religious extremists of the USA’s pre-founding era; never-mind my nation’s founders were giants of enlightenment thinking, because it is the excesses of Calvinism, only worse, a criminally insane, socially inverted ‘morality’, that has come to rule us. This is the simple reality.
What we have today is ‘prosperity gospel’ overtaken the western corporate boards of the USA’s military-industrial complex where, no matter certain outcome of egregious death were delivered to entire societies, if these outcomes make you personally mega-wealthy, ‘it is because God is blessing you.’ Erstwhile Chevron board director, Bush National Security Advisor & one time Secretary of State, Condoleezza Rice is example par excellence.
From this necrotic phenomenon come the lateral relationships between corporate boards’ most powerful personalities, evinced in manifestation of ‘deep state’ minions; where marionette personalities like Rice, and more recently, Tillerson, point to a relationship of oil stocks, example given, to American corporate neocolonialism in what amounts to a planet-wide Manifest Destiny 2.0. The original Manifest Destiny, that is the conquest and rule over America’s indigenous nations, it should be remembered, was attended with rationale of evangelism; that is bringing ‘Christian’ civilization to the heathen. But today’s adversary, Russia, you might argue in the present context, is a Christian nation. Well, the argument of these fantastic hypocrites would be ‘Orthodoxy’ is ‘not Christian enough’ or is ‘the wrong kind of Christian.’ The underlying argument with Russia continues to be a theological one; from the past argument with ‘godless’ Marx, to the present argument with ‘deceived’ Orthodoxy. If your Christianity is not one of violent greed, en route to literal apocalypse (with a required alignment along the way to the western corporate evangelism), it counts for nothing with these people.
Is the preceding statement too strong? Here is the evidence I would offer: Eduard Popov has, without a doubt, read Tolstoy and Solzhenitsyn. The Americans I am speaking of have little interest in this quality of literature, in fact our great writer, Washington Irving, other than some surviving in print trite tales of colonial Dutch ghosts, is a forgotten literary figure and was no giant of ethics, rather a honest and entertaining chronicler of American life. No, truth be known, they’d not read this man nor would they be fans of Mark Twain, for if the Americans could produce a great writer, he’d be a satirist of our culture and Twain was exactly that. Beyond this, I doubt so much as 1% of the right-wing evangelicals are so much as aware of the existence of Howard Zinn’s ‘A People’s History of The United States’ where the public schools had been castrated and deprived of right to teach controversial material, whether left, right or center. What do these extreme American neocolonialists of the present day read? A multiple New York Times best selling list extreme Christian fantasy series:
“The formula combines Tom Clancy-like suspense with touches of romance, high-tech flash and Biblical references.” […] “an exciting, stay-up-late-into-the-night, page turner story” […] “the most successful Christian Fiction series ever” […] “…blend of B-movie science fantasy and horror”
An Orthodox view of the preceding?
“David Carlson, a Professor of Religious Studies and a member of the Greek Orthodox Church, wrote that the theology underpinning the Left Behind series promotes a “skewed view of the Christian faith that welcomes war and disaster, while dismissing peace efforts in the Middle East and elsewhere–all in the name of Christ“” [bold mine RTW]
Yes sir, Mr Popov, this is the mindset of the Pentagon, Vice President of the United States of America Mike Pence, CIA Director & Secretary of State hopeful Mike Pompeo, American National Security Advisor John Bolton, American Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley and not least, Melania Trump. To name a few of the many American self-anointed or ‘chosen.’ Whether Donald Trump is a ‘true believer’ is unknown. But the influences surrounding him should be realistically noted.
Lastly, in regards to the preceding, it should not be missed the USA’s flamboyant overthrow of the rule of International Law is a follow-on to the cavalier discarding of its own Constitutional order; where the self-justifying-self-excusing comes down to a narcissistic interpretation where ‘God’s Law’ is held superior to any institution of man’s law. In this criminal act of usurping all institutions of national and international order, raising the stakes rather than facing accountability, is the preferred model of criminals who’ve burnt their bridges behind them; no matter consequence for the rest of us. When it comes to choice of facing a noose for the individual’s crimes or marching armies towards initiating Armageddon for us all, their instinct will be to Armageddon. That Russian military would slice NATO to pieces in Europe means nothing to these people, they would disingenuously cite the 300 Spartans of Thermopylae and wash their hands of responsibility.
If the preceding is in the model of a cloistered, insulated community of thought springing from a George Orwell inspired science fiction religious fantasy morphing into reality, what of the Americans who should have been putting the brakes on this necrotic turn of events for the world? They’re preoccupied in a Huxley-esque ‘it’s all about me’ dissolute embrace of propagandized consumerism. They’re so caught up in the ‘Hillary was cheated’ (related to feminism) propaganda lie, where the women are competing not to be equal to the men, as much as to be like the men, in a social rule of artificial political correctness to point of grotesque, they don’t even have a spiritual wherewithal or dimension to question what has actually happened. This other side of the American schizophrenic order couldn’t even begin to comprehend they are every bit as susceptible to the economic collapse that would come with an American arms production & sales cessation. Pain that comes with self-sacrifice are altogether alien concept to these ‘other’ Americans who couldn’t understand they also are living far beyond their means, via corporate neocolonialism’s exploitation of this small planet at point of arms, if they actually tried.
Closing, I will quote an ethnic Russian of expatriate family from Soviet times, a man who has attempted to study and understand both sides, today’s rising Russia and, its dissolute but dangerous adversary:
“The Russian view is simple: the West is ruled by a gang of thugs supported by an infinitely lying and hypocritical media while the general public in the West has been hopelessly zombified” — The Saker
I hate to say it, but he’s almost right. The missing element to make the entirety of the perception whole would be ‘irrational’ added thrice.
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A former Special Forces Sergeant of Operations and Intelligence, Ronald Thomas West is a retired paralegal/investigator (living in exile) whose work focus had been anti-corruption and human rights. Ronald is published in International Law as a layman (The Mueller-Wilson Report, co-authored with Dr Mark D Cole) and has been adjunct professor of American Constitutional Law at Johannes Gutenberg University, Mainz, Germany (for English credit, summer semester 2008.) Ronald’s formal educational background is primarily in social psychology.
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Ronald Thomas West 