American Imperialism, Persuasive Putin
There is a solution, it appears, to the overbearing universality of American exceptionalism. The mindset of Americans, steered by their successive presidential plans and expectations that they will lead and the world will follow. That the power of the United States of America is sufficient to have all other nations bend to the fears of American displeasure, and seeking not to bring attention to their own incompetent leadership, accede to all demands that U.S. administrations extend as invitations.
Leaders rising up against Western order"Peter the Great, czar from 1682 till his death in 1725, has been admired ever since for the successful wars he fought to expand Russia. Stalin still retains some Russian admirers [and a relatively gentle treatment in Russian schoolbooks] because at his death in 1953 Moscow's power encompassed most of eastern Europe and a vast collection of multi-ethnic and multilanguage provinces in the U.S.S.R."Mr. Fulford, if he has read Russia Insider or U.S.-Russia.org, isn't too impressed with their arguments that the 'free world' leadership itself is raising questions about American imperialism. Their claim is that:
"In difficult times, such as the present [when oil prices have fallen disastrously], Russians admire proud, ambitious leaders, those willing to establish Russian power and influence in distant places. No one knows that better than Putin."
Robert Fulford, journalist, National Post
"Pope Francis, Russian President Vladimir Putin, Chinese President Xi Jinping, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani and Labor Party leader Jeremy Corbyn have raised fundamental questions concerning:Placing Pope Francis in the company of Vladimir Putin, Xi Jinping, Hassan Rouhani and Jeremy Corbyn might not be hugely pleasing to the pope, but there you are, and there he is in the illustrious company of four world figures of questionable repute, three of whom have certainly put their neighbours on edge, all three of whom have been responsible for extreme human rights violations, verging on crimes against humanity.
- (1) war and peace in the Middle East and the Caucuses;
- (2) climate change and the destruction of the environment;
- (3) economic sanctions, military threats and confrontation; and
- (4) growing inequalities of class, gender and race
Jeremy Corbyn has not yet been given the opportunity through socialist serendipity to prove that he too is fundamentally capable of unleashing violence and immunity to justice on a world scale, but he's working on it. Each of the three others, excluding the good pope, are capable in their vision of a new world order, of unleashing their own brand of Armageddon on the world, and they seem to be attempting just that.
And while the United States did, before Imperial Japan finally surrendered at the base of the Second World War, sic the hounds of hell on Nagasaki and Hiroshima, a horrible lesson of humanity's propensity to vicious excess and the plight of civilians forever perishing in the throes of warfare, Messrs. Putin, Xi and Rouhani appear to be waiting in the wings to try out their individual and quite deadly iterations given the right conditions.
Perhaps the only nation in the world that stands in the way of permitting those right conditions to arise is the maligned and still-powerful United States of America, which is, at the present time, undergoing its own, internal flirtation with purgatorial politics. As for Putin The Persuasive, he appears to relish the successes he has engineered in leading a Nobel Laureate around by the nose and perhaps he chafes at the understanding that he will soon be facing an adversary whose inflexibility echoes his own.
More to his taste is alliances with some of the ilk of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad who knows how to react to challenges to his authority; citizens of Syria who protest against inequality can expect greater measures to be barrel-bombed upon them, their cities destroyed, their futures placed in abeyance, as the death toll mounts and the refugee counts multiply, leaving Europe to flounder; killing two birds with one stone, as it were.
Still mired in Ukraine, support of the Russian-speaking Ukrainian rebels ongoing, protestations of no Russian involvement in weapons-transfer, troop deployment, planned assaults based on accusations of espionage, treason and violence-in-the-making against a neighbouring country whom Putin/Moscow has deprived of critical territory and resources, Mr. Putin is adamant that neither he nor the Kremlin have done anything untoward, and it's their neck of the woods anyway, NATO be damned and double that for the U.S.
Next on Putin's agenda of persuasion? Tossing the die to permanently ingratiate himself with the world order by succeeding where others, many others, have spectacularly failed. Revival of 'peace talks' between Mahmoud Abbas and Benjamin Netanyahu, prepared to meet with them in Moscow and set down a roster of rules and expectations. Under Putin, Russia is veering once again to its destiny as Great Power.
Labels: Middle East, Russia, Ukraine, United States
posted by Pieface @ Saturday, August 27, 2016
<< Home