Steven25's Blog

Asia Times, Dec 1, 2014 —  http://atimes.com/atimes/World/WOR-01-011214.html

THE ROVING EYE

By Pepe Escobar

Are the United States, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization and Russia on a mad spiral leading to yet another war in Europe? Is it inevitable? Far from it.
The US-propelled vassal currently starring in the oligarch dance in Ukraine, Petro Poroshenko, last week advanced the proposition that Ukrainians in the near future, after his „reforms“, will be asked to vote on whether to join NATO.
Let’s be serious here. Many of you will be familiar with the concept of „shatter belt“ – territories and peoples that historically have been squeezed between the Germanic Eagle and the Russian Bear.
As we stand, the whole shatter belt – apart from Ukraine and Belarus – has signed up to NATO. A new Berlin wall, this time US-built – from the Baltics to the Black Sea now runs through Kiev. Were Ukraine to become a NATO member in an albeit remote future, the shatter belt buffer zone would disappear. This means NATO – essentially the US – planted right on Russia’s western border.
Washington has just announced that it will be pre-positioning more military vehicles in Europe to be used in exercises or „potential military operations“. This is perfectly in tune with the relentless US Think Tankland spin that NATO and the US will be „forced“ to balance their commitment to security in Eastern Europe against potential Russian „aggression“.
As Ukraine, the Baltic states and Poland persist in compounded hysteria about such „aggression“, the option of a post-MAD (Mutually Assured Destruction) US-Russia nuclear war, terrifying as it must be, is now – casually – back on the discussion table. At least there’s a countercurrent: strands of informed Americans are wondering why the US should be paying for Europe’s defense when European GDP is larger than that of the US.

Wanna play war, boy?
Now for the „threat“ of nuclear war in Europe – bogus or otherwise. It’s pointless to compare the strategic nuclear capabilities of the US and Russia based on numbers, but not on quality.
Take the compounded GDP of US, Germany, France and the UK and compare it to Russia; it’s a victory by landslide. Then examine the strategic nuclear scenario, and it’s a totally different story. GDP alone does not „win“ anything.
Washington/Wall Street elites are now deep into nuclear war paranoia. A Council on Foreign Relations study basically „found out“ what Pravda had already reported. Other pieces such as this at least hint at the obvious – glaring US strategic shortcomings.  (…)

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Martin Zeis

martin.zeis@gmxpro.net