The only USA base missing on this map is Ukraine - you guessed it, because Russia said "enough!" On Mon, Sep 26, 2016 at 02:22:41PM -0700, Sean Lynch wrote:
On Mon, Sep 26, 2016 at 2:04 PM, Steve Kinney <admin@pilobilus.net> wrote:
On 09/23/2016 08:04 PM, Zenaan Harkness wrote:
So the US government appears set on complete destruction of Ukraine. Doesn't even make strategic sense at this point. I guess unless you're an essentially evil Western oligarch who wants to carve it up for purchase on the cheap, the people, the Russians, and the world be damned.
In the context of the Cold War, now arriving at the boiling point due to the Bush/Obama Administration's belligerent posture toward Russia, the U.S. annexation of Ukraine via a (literally) Nazi proxy force makes strategic sense: It was a destabilizing military and economic provocation against the Russian Federation, and has been followed by a massive conventional force buildup on Europe's eastern borders, adding pressure to the weight of U.S. controlled strategic nuclear assets that were /already/ present on that border. These deployments must be countered, which ties up Russian military assets and reduces that country's force projection capabilities in North Africa and the Middle East.
Russia's continuing support of the ethnic Russian enclave on Ukraine's eastern border also makes strategic sense: It prevents full consolidation of power by the U.S. installed government, prevents routine deployment of East-facing U.S. controlled forces on the Ukraine/Russian border, and provides a potential haven for Ukrainian insurgents working against the government in Kiev.
Crimea's value to Russia is self explanatory, and I do not recall hearing anything about the populace turning out to protest the orderly handover of power to Russia in preference to a U.S. sponsored gang of (literal) Nazis. Rather the opposite, and I saw no evidence that the U.S. even /tried/ to retain Crimea.
I don't disagree with this, but I will say that I think there are other equally valid interpretations that don't involve words like "annex", which I think applies far more to Russia with Crimea than it does to the US w.r.t. the rest of Ukraine. On the other hand, the main innovation of the US flavor of imperialism is the more subtle/opaque means by which it achieves its ends, thus ensuring that one can easily interpret it as not imperialism. Not that the Russians are above subterfuge; they're just not in a position to as easily use it in this situation.
Backing off now I see. "Slut" comes to mind. That and "2014's propaganda"
The "USA Number One!" mentality of comfortable Middle Class Amerikans makes sense of a kind: Their continued material prosperity relative to the former Working Class /does/ depend on global terrorism, enforced poverty, mass murder, cities reduced to rubble and refugee columns, etc. as the U.S. war of global economic conquest continues. They deserve to see the same things happen to their own children and families, and if they continue to get their own way they WILL see that - - unless they happen to be closer to ground zero "on the day." Unfortunately, this cheerful little scenario involves dragging those /not/ responsible for all that human misery and heaped, dead burnt bodies down into the same hell.
This is by no means unique or even more prevalent in the United States than elsewhere. The way for any government to retain its power is by convincing a large enough segment of the population that it's better off than it would be under some other situation they think they can achieve. Cognitive assonance does the rest. I certainly suffer from it as much as anyone. I like to think I'm more enlightened than the average person in my position,
A little honesty is a good thing.
but TBH I have no idea what I'll do when the shit hits the fan. What I do know is that my family comes before any kind of ideology. Which in a sense is just selfishness, but I do feel like I was far more able to do things on behalf of ideology that were not in my immediate self-interest before I had kids.
The real conflict here is not West vs. East or even USA vs. The Rest Of The World. It is the human race, vs. its own parasitic ruling class and their faithful servants. The parasites have already lost; if they do not surrender their power voluntarily (impossible), environmental limits enforced by the laws of physics will destroy that power (inevitable). Now the only game in town is about reducing the final body count, which no rational scenario places at less than a couple of billion, and preserving essential long term survival resources for the survivors. And that's where radical populist politics enters the scene. Communication is vitally important in political warfare, and providing the best possible tools to Our Side is the mission that makes "cypherpunk" bullshit worth doing.
I don't share your pessimism as to bodycount, but that could be wishful thinking.
