Many years ago, the US moved intermediate range missiles into Turkey and Italy, aimed at the Soviet Union. The Soviets did not appreciate this action, so they proceeded to move their similar missiles into Cuba. The result was a huge uproar and end-of-world hysteria, but the US quietly withdrew its missiles and the Soviets turned around and also took their missiles back home. The two countries learned their lesson and proceeded to negotiate arms-control agreements. Fast forward a half-century and the US decided to try the same maneuver again by moving weapons closer and closer to the Russian border while ditching many of the arms-control agreements. The Russians were not amused and suggested that Russia might move weapons closer to the US border in response. In addition, the president of Russia had some long discussions with the presidents of Cuba and Venezuela, which sparked more speculation that something was afoot.
RUSSIAN MIGHT
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Wang Yi ‘Overwhelms’ Blinken, Confirms China Backs Russia on Ukraine, NATO in Furious Call
11 minutes readALEXANDER MERCOURIS argues that several of EU’s most important nations are now de facto breaking with Washington in its confrontation with Russia, unwilling and unable to implement American diktats. This is a turning point for Europe, ANATO itself, and the world. In time the chance are that the french and german examples will create a deeper and wider rift with the US empire.
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China Sitrep: Cookies, Lil’Blinky and The Pain Dial
22 minutes readAMARYNTH—Global Times wrote an op-ed about all of this, explaining: “The root cause of the Ukraine issue is that the US has promoted NATO’s eastward expansion unrestrainedly, thus pushing Russia into a corner where there is no way to retreat. Washington is the culprit of the crisis. The US now hopes China will “persuade” Russia. In essence, it wants China to urge Moscow to make a concession. The perfect plan Washington desires is that Moscow will cooperate unconditionally with the US’ geopolitical ambitions. How absurd and ridiculous its logic is!”
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The Imperialists’ and Proxies’ War against Syria
20 minutes readKIM PETERSEN—What will be a surprise to most people is the solidarity shown by the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) toward its longtime partner Syria. (Albeit this is no surprise to readers of another of A.B. Abram’s excellent books, Immovable Object: North Korea’s 70 Years at War with American Power. Review.) Gains made by the invading forces would be substantially rolled back with the entry of Russia, an event deplored by some leftists. Among the reasons for a Russian entry was fear of Islamist terrorism approaching its frontier.
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The Changing World: Pepe Escobar’s Excellent Summary.
7 minutes readA new Eurasia-led order encompassing the vast majority of the world’s population is a work in fast progress. China using Eurasia as the larger stage to upgrade its global role, in parallel to the fast-evolving Sino-Russian-Iranian interaction, carries larger than life implications for the Western gatekeepers of the imperial ‘rules-based order.’ The de-Westernization of globalization, from a Chinese point of view, does involve a completely new terminology (‘community of shared destiny’). And there are hardly more glaring examples of ‘shared destiny’ than its deeper interconnection with both Russia and Iran. One of the crucial geopolitical questions of our time is how an emergent, supposedly Chinese hegemony will articulate itself.