As the United States has targeted the globe purportedly looking for bogeymen, the "former" Soviet Union is set to conduct an all-out nuclear military exercise that is reminiscent of the Cold War, and will be overseen personally by Russian President Vladimir Putin.
The Associated Press reports that the exercises are "apparently aimed at demonstrating the revival of the nation's military might and come ahead of Russian elections in March."
Quoting:
"Kommersant said the maneuvers would involve Tu-160 strategic bombers test-firing cruise missiles over the northern Atlantic. Analysts describe such an exercise as an imitation of a nuclear attack on the United States. (Emphasis of D.W.)
"Other groups of bombers will fly over Russia's Arctic regions and test-fire missiles at a southern range near the Caspian Sea, the newspaper said.
"As part of the exercise, the military is planning to conduct several launches of intercontinental ballistic missiles, including one from a Russian nuclear submarine in the Barents Sea, the Kommersant report said. ...
"Putin has repeatedly pledged to rebuild Russia's military might and restore pride to the demoralized service. When he ran for his first term in 2000, he flew as a second pilot in a fighter jet and later donned naval officer's garb on a visit to a nuclear submarine — images that played well with many voters who are nostalgic for Soviet global power and military prestige."
We are pretending that Russia is no longer a threat to the United States. We are told that Communism is dead in the "former" Soviet Union.
At the same time, we are funding Communist China, giving them the wealth to rebuild their military as they form partnerships with Russia.
On July 16, 2001, Russia and China signed a friendship treaty which encompassed five major areas of cooperation. According to the Heritage Foundation — which I do not endorse, but will cite as a source for the following — the five areas of the treaty entailed:
The last point will likely be the reason for the treaty, given for Western consumption.
Reaction to the treaty by the Bush Administration was an exercise in impotence, attempting to downplay the significance of the agreement. Timothy Bancroft-Hinchey, writing in the Russian publication Pravda, quoted administration officials and Washington insiders' complacent reactions to the new partnership:
"Another unnamed White House official stated that although Russia and China have known each other since the 14th century, they have only been friends in the last 40 years, although exactly what the author of that statement intended is unclear, as so often these days in Washington.
"The reaction from Robert Suettinger, a supposed expert in Chinese matters, is equally surprising, both for its lack of content and its plain insolence. Speaking about 'old ways of thinking', he stated 'This shows us what is the classical Leninist thought v let's make a friendship pact. It shows that in both capitals there is still preference for this type of analysis.'
"Suettinger did not stop at this. 'Conventional common sense,' he continues, 'implies that we are more important to either one of them than they are for each other and that there is no reason for worry.' Finally, he stated that the notion of the USA being a unipolar hegemony is a 'myth'.
"Nicholas Lard, of the Brookings Institute, declares that 'Russia has become less and less important for China since the 1980s' and that the weakness in economic relations between the two countries 'will become greater and greater'."
Finally, Hinchey concluded:
"Reading these statements by top officials, supposedly some of the most responsible men in their country, one wonders whether the Bush administration has been struck by some form of collective madness. One has only to look at any list showing Russia and China's economic records in recent years to see that here are two of the world's most powerful nations, standing together. These statements by supposed experts demonstrate such a total degree of ignorance that one begins to wonder whether or not the USA is a serious country run by serious people.
"Such statements by Washington do nothing to dispel the notion that the US diplomacy under the administration of George W. Bush leaves much to be desired and does not bring to the USA the dignity which its people deserve."
This is the official Russian media essentially stating that our governmental leaders and their advisors are an insult to the dignity of the American people. However, Hinchey's assertion that the nose-thumbing by U.S. governmental leaders is the result of "ignorance" doesn't posses the ring of truth for this observer. Rather, I believe it is the demonstration of a much more ominous reality.
That Bush and all of the foreign policy experts who advise him could somehow be ignorant of the gravity of the Chinese-Russian threat, fails to operate in the realm of likelihood.
The partnership between Russia and China — and the revival of the Russian threat — are a serious crisis alone. When coupled with the numerous military base closures in the United States — and the global war on terror, which is creating a vacuum in the American defense — the crisis culminates to a catastrophe waiting to happen.
The war on terror is creating world-wide resentment against the United States, and threatens to alienate American allies.
Further complicating the situation, is the entanglement of the U.S. economy with that of communist China. Under international trade agreements, the United States has lost much of its industrial backbone to China and Mexico. The result has been a lower standard of living for the American people and huge American trade deficits.
Former Democratic Congressman James Trafficant commented on December 5, 2000 on the House floor:
"Mr. Speaker, America's trade deficit for September hit $35 billion for one month, $35 billion. America is heading for a $420 billion, 1-year trade deficit. Unbelievable! If this continues, America will have a crash that will make 1929 look like a fender-bender. What is even worse, China is now taking $100 billion of cash out of our economy, buying missiles, and pointing them at us. Beam us up, all of us! We must be stupid! Ronald Reagan almost destroyed Communism, and the Clinton administration has reinvented it, is now subsidizing it, and is now stabilizing it. I yield back any common sense left and any patriotism left in this Congress."
Mr. Trafficant gives Reagan more credit than he deserves. For it appears now that Communism was never really destroyed in Russia. But the bear was merely placed into hibernation, to be awakened at the proper moment.
And as Trafficant pointed out, the trade imbalance with Communist China is aiding that country in rebuilding its military infrastructure, as it and Russia are actively preparing for a war with the United States.
The darkest side to all of this is that a military engagement with China appears to be exactly what the Bush administration wants. That intent was spelled out in the Project For a New American Century (PNAC) report, written prior to the 2000 election for the soon-to-be Bush administration. In the report, China was one of several countries that was marked for "regime change". Obviously, there will be no U.S.-inspired regime change in China, without a war.
As the United States military continues to span the globe, overthrowing governments and killing innocent men, women, and children under the false pretense of fighting "terror", the chilling and inescapable suspicion at home is that we are being led into a third and final world war — a war that the U.S. cannot and will not win. A war that is designed to be lost. A war without merit, it's sole purpose being to usher in a new world order.
When and if that happens, the real losers will be anyone with breath left in their lungs. For death by far would be sweeter than living under world-wide Communism.
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