Cuban Missile Crisis Redux
Paul Craig Roberts / Paul Craig Roberts.org & RT News
(December 16, 2021) — A country without an honest media is blind to its fate. In the US there is no media, only repetition of official narratives. The foreign policy narrative is: Russia Bad. China Bad. Iran bad. That is the extent of US foreign policy.
Any person who wants to improve relations with one of the black hats, as Trump did with Russia, is branded an agent of that country. The US Justice (sic) Department has gone further. Any American who writes for the English language Russian websites, Strategic Culture Foundation and SouthFront, is subject to fines and perhaps prison. https://www.strategic-culture.org/news/2021/11/18/us-blacklists-strategic-culture-foundation-in-attack-on-independent-journalism-and-political-dissent/ I see this as the beginning of branding any American who differs from the narrative as a foreign agent. Historically, as well as in dystopian novels, this is the way explanations are controlled.
The curtailment of information also blinds the government, and this is now happening in Washington to a dangerous extent. Washington overthrew the Ukrainian government in 2014 for the opportunities a Ukrainian puppet state provides to destabilize Russia and her security.
To restore stability, the Kremlin put together the Minsk Agreement, but Washington and its new puppet state have abandoned it. The Kremlin now faces the weaponization of the Ukraine and Washington’s intention, whether tomorrow or in a future year, to incorporate Ukraine into Nato. As the Kremlin sees it, this means nuclear weapons on Russia’s border only a few minutes away from targets.
Russia has made it clear that no such thing will be tolerated, but Washington has continued to ignore the Kremlin’s request to negotiate an end to a destabilizing situation. As I pointed out ( https://www.paulcraigroberts.org/2021/12/14/russia-speaks-can-the-dumbshits-in-washington-hear/ ), suddenly the language changed. The euphemistic “our partners” became “our opponents.” In place of polite and ignored requests that Russia’s concerns be addressed, there is a stark demand.
The heavy work is being done by deputy foreign minister Sergey Ryabkov. This leaves Lavrov and Putin clear to step in and negotiate a friendly agreement should anyone in Washington notice that Russian patience has run out.
Russia Has Ten Times as More Nuclear Weapons Than NATO
Ryabkov says that if Washington’s ears remain blocked, one consequence will be Russian nuclear missiles in Cuba and Venezuela. The consequences for US security will be dire. “Lack of progress towards a political and diplomatic solution to this problem [Ukraine] will lead to our response being military and technological.”
Washington’s “irresponsible behavior creates grave military risks for all parties involved, up to and including a large-scale conflict in Europe. . . . it is necessary to officially disavow the decision taken at the 2008 NATO summit in Bucharest about Ukraine and Georgia becoming NATO members. . . . We insist that serious long-term legal guarantees are provided, which would exclude NATO’s further advancement to the east and deployment of weapons on Russia’s western borders which are a threat to Russia. This must be done within a specific time frame.” Ruabkov adds: “We insist on receiving a concrete response,” otherwise the next round “will be a confrontation.”
Have you heard anything about this from CNN, NPR, the New York Times? Of course not. Is President Biden addressing this extremely serious situation? No, Biden is busy pumping up Big Pharma’s profits with scare hype over the harmless Omicron variant.
The Kremlin cannot put it any clearer. The Kremlin expects a solution now to its security concern or “the consequences will be dire.” As for NATO, RIA Novosti quotes Ryabkov:
“There is basically no trust in NATO. Many times we have found ourselves in a situation where today one thing is announced, the day after tomorrow another, a year later – the third, and all this is done as if nothing had happened. And one of the reasons why Russia is now demanding legal guarantees of security at the highest level is related to the fact that so far all promises, all assurances and statements, and even political obligations have been overturned. Western foreign policy acts in a way that is beneficial for Washington. It does not reckon with the interests of our security. Therefore, we no longer play such games and do not believe in NATO assurances.”
So what has Washington’s foreign policy achieved? It has discredited Washington’s word. It has created suspicion and distrust in the minds of the leaders of a militarily powerful country. Washington’s arrogance is driving a crisis. Washington having destroyed all pillars of stabilization built over decades now leaves us confronted once again with Armageddon.
Washington Keeps on Pushing Russia:
Deploys F-15 Fighters Closer to Russian Borders
MOSCOW (December 15, 2021) — Washington has sent fighter jets to Romania to patrol the skies near Russia’s borders as part of a NATO mission designed to deter Moscow in the Black Sea region and around Ukraine.
F-15E Strike Eagles from the 336th Fighter Squadron landed at the Campia Turzii airfield in central Romania on Wednesday. They will patrol the skies, taking off from an air base near the country’s Black Sea coast along with Romanian warplanes and Italian Eurofighter Typhoons, NATO said.
The arrival of American planes contributes to the Western military bloc’s “deterrence in the region,”Brigadier General Joel Carey, the Allied Air Command deputy chief of staff operations, said. “The ability to rapidly deploy Allied air assets in support of NATO is vital to our readiness and demonstrates the force’s agility.”
In 2014, NATO boosted surveillance flights and air patrols near Russia’s western borders, as part of what the bloc calls ‘enhanced air policing’.
NATO and Russia closely track each other’s military flights, and have accused each other of dangerous maneuvering in the skies. Russia’s state civil aviation agency said this month that a Russian passenger airliner traveling above the Black Sea was forced to suddenly change altitude due to a NATO spy plane that was flying nearby.
Tensions between Russia and NATO have been running high in recent weeks, as Western officials and media claim that Moscow is amassing troops and military hardware with the possible intent to invade Ukraine. During a meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Thursday, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said that “any further aggression against Ukraine will have severe consequences.”
Russia has repeatedly denied claims it is planning to attack its neighbor. President Vladimir Putin said Moscow seeks assurances that NATO will not move its military infrastructure closer to Russia’s borders.
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