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Showing posts with label Putin. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Putin. Show all posts

Wednesday, June 4, 2025

CIA v. USA?

    The recent attack by Ukraine deep into Russia raises many questions.  First, it was amazingly successful.  About a third of Russia's strategic bombers were attacked on the ground, safe Russian ground, remote from any borders.  Drones were the culprits, we are told.  Ukraine takes the credit.

   War inspires invention.  The American Civil War produced an early submarine that damaged a larger ship.  The Gatling gun, an early version of the machine gun, gave a preview of what later versions would do in WWI to provide great advantage to the defenders, resulting in the widespread use of trench war fare, and huge losses of men to capture small areas of territory.  The use of hot-air baloons to lift observers to better see the surrounding terrain was used in varous 19th century conflicts, but was now being replaced by airplanes, which began to add guns so they could do more than observe.  Poison gas killed on both sides.  Zeppelins bombed enemy cities.

   The tanks moved ahead despite the machine guns, and the static war of trenches was replaced by the lightning (fast) war of tanks in WWII.  Planes could shoot more and bomb more, radar helped, and bombs grew in size.  U-Boots  could hide under water longer. The Russians developed a heavier, beter armored tank with heavier fire-power, the Germans lost the Battle of Kursk, and the war in Europe.  The A-Bomb swept rhe Japanese Asian Empire into a vast nuclear cloud of death.  The war in Ukraine saw tanks of both sides stopped by drones.  What else could they do?  Recent tanks, recent fighter jets, disabled by cheap drones!  Apartment houses defaced and usually a few tenants killed by drones.

   Both Russia and Ukraine sent their drones into the territories of their opponents,  Then the REAL SURPRISE attack by Ukraine destroying rail bridges and Russia's strategic bombers.  Could Ukraine have done this alond.  Steve Bannon asserts that American intelligence services must have been involved to provide information on Russian bomber whereabouts.  American intelligence services and devices would have been required.  In taking out so many of Russia's strategic bombers, in one swoop, this, argues Bannon, was an act of war; and our intelligence was deeply involved.

   Did Trump know about this planned sneak attack?  Was he informed?  Did he approve?  Trump had been calling for the end of the war; he ran for President speaking of ending the war quickly.  The American intelligence agencies are usually globalists, anti-MAGA, pro-Democrats, as exposed by 51 leaders of the US intelligence community signing an over lie just prior to the 2020 Presidential election; they said that the Hunter Biden laptop was Russian disinformation.  This was meant to let Hunter, AND JOE BIDEN off the hook of sizable corruption with China, implications.  The agencies urged Google and other big tech corporations to discount the laptop story, thereby helping Biden defeat Trump.

   Was the Ukrainian drone raid simply meant to show that the Ukraine was still capable of fighting?  Or an attempt to sabotage Trump's peace efforts?  It is possible Trump had become with Putin's delays of negotiation and therefore Trump gave his approval of the drone killing the bomber plans.  OR Trump may have been ignored or even defied; if they went ahead without his green light.

   Who runs America?  We elect Presidents and Congress; but who makes the final decisions?  It is not a new problem.  The agencies had their say in 1963 in Dallas.  Trump has had to survive a Butler, PA, assassin, and another in Florida with Ukrainian connections.

   One hopes Trump will bring Peace to Ukraine and other areas, and peace and prosperity to America.  One hopes the agencies will not stage another coup.

   Trump is an admirer of Israel's Iron Dome that protects the small nation from missiles from Iran, Yemen, and other hostile nations and territories.  Trump wants a Golden Dome to protect from Greenland to Alaska, Canada and the USA, a vast defensive dome to prevent missiles coming in to destroy our defences and cities.  Question - with drones a new and effective method of war, can drones simply slip in below the Dome and do all the damage they want???  Are Domes practical defences any more?  In the new age of the drone, can America rely on a Dome??  Hugh Murray

Monday, June 3, 2024

A SURPRISING STORY FROM RT

 RT is a Russian outlet and one expects to see the Russian position on world politics.  But I am surprised by this article, happily so.  At a time when anti-Jewish mobs  roam top notch American universities, and can appear before Jewish schools and temples, this is a refreshing contrast.  Hugh Murray

3 Jun, 2024 17:14

Putin congratulates Jews

The Russian President called Salvation Day, which celebrates the defeat of Nazi Germany, one of the most important dates in Jewish history
Putin congratulates Jews

Russian President Vladimir Putin has wished Russian Jews ‘all the best’ as they celebrate the Day of Salvation and Liberation - a holiday dedicated to the defeat of Nazi Germany in World War II.

While the unconditional surrender of Nazi Germany, or Victory Day, is recognized on May 8 in Western countries and May 9 in Russia and parts of the former Soviet Union and the former Yugoslavia, in 1945 that date fell on the 26th day of the Jewish month of Iyar. This year, that day coincides with June 3.

In a statement published on the Kremlin’s official website, Putin wrote “26 Iyar is one of the most important, significant dates in the centuries-old history of the Jewish people,” which connects eras and generations and personifies “the unfading memory of the Great Victory” and the “immortal feat” of those who crushed Nazism and saved the Jewish and other peoples from annihilation.

“This is a tribute to deep, sincere respect for people who, in the most difficult trials, showed steadfastness and courage and did not submit to a cruel and merciless enemy,” Putin wrote.

The president went on to describe the holiday as a celebration that enriches the “historical, religious, and cultural traditions of Russian Jews, promotes high spiritual, moral, patriotic ideals and values in society, especially among young people, and serves to consolidate efforts in opposing radical nationalism, xenophobia and anti-Semitism.”

“I wish you success in implementing your plans and all the best. Happy holiday!” Putin’s message concluded.

Wednesday, April 3, 2024

PRES. BIDEN IS A THREAT TO DEMOCRACY IN AMERICA

      The mis-named Democratic Party is already planning to undermine a fair election this November. Their Attorneys General often try to kick Trump of the ballot, as if he had been an official in the Confederate government. In 2020 the Dems had their special lawyers kick the Green Party and Kanye West off the ballot in swing states. Now they will do every trick possible to prevent Kennedy Jr. from getting on the ballot, especially in swing states. So the Democratic Party works to keep Trump off the ballot, keep Kennedy, Jr. off the ballot, keep the Green Party off the ballot, etc., so your choice this November should be Biden and some Biden approved opponents. Just like Putin had his election this year in Russia, where Navalny was in jail and then dead, and other opponents were kicked off the ballot, and only the approved opposition was on the ballot against Putin. Putin won with 80% of the vote. That is what the Democrats want here. The Democratic Party is an enemy of democracy.

     In some Democratic run states and cities, officials seek to register illegal aliens.  Sometimes they allege it is only to vote in school board elections where the illegals have children in school.  But are there really separate voting rolls?  No.  The purpose is to register non-citizens so they can swell the Democratic Party vote.  Can it make a difference?  There were estimates of 800,000 who could be registered in New York State alone.  Bad enough that our citizen taxpayers are paying for the education of the illegals.  Worse, when they graduate, if they are people of color, the illegals may well receive an affirmative action preference over a white or Asian American citizen.  Why do people who invade our country receive preferences over American citizens?  The invader is invited to the head of the line for jobs, promotions, scholarships, admissions, while the American citizens are pushed further and further behind.  How can this happen?  Because the invaders are more likely to vote Democrat, to vote for Biden, than American citizens.

     Pres. Biden aids and abets a foreign invasion of the United States. That is why we have open borders.  This helps the long-range goals of the Democrats, and Biden in the short run.  It is still treason.  Traitor Joe is a danger to democracy and to American citizens.

     One need not agree with Trump on all issues, or even on many issues, to see the danger to the country if Biden and the Democrats win in November 2024.   -------Hugh Murray

Wednesday, May 3, 2023

Democrat Robert Kennedy on the Ukrainian/Russian conflict

 Recently, when Dem. Presidential candidate Robert Kennedy, Jr. was interviewed on  ABC television, the hostess interrupted his comments, told the television audience Kennedy was wrong when he spoke about the Covid virus and vaccines, and cut him off the air.  On most American major media, if someone disagrees with Dr. Fauci, or other leading medicrats, they will be cut off.  Pfizer and other large pharmaceutical corporations are large sponsors on American tv.  

     Apparently Kennedy has spoken on another "sensitive" topic for American media.  This report comes from RT. so take with a grain of salt.  However, at least you can see the points Kenndy was making. Hugh Murray

Kennedy shares opinion on key US mistake with Russia

Washington has lied and ignored Moscow’s “red lines,” the presidential candidate has said
Kennedy shares opinion on key US mistake with Russia

Instead of listening to Russian President Vladimir Putin’s warnings about “red lines,” the US has repeatedly crossed them, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said in an interview published on Wednesday. The Democrat running for US president added that Washington should have either invited Moscow to NATO or dismantled the anti-Russian alliance after the Cold War.

“We should have listened to Putin over many years. We made a commitment to Russia, to Gorbachev, that we would not move NATO one inch to the east. Then we went in, and we lied,” Kennedy told the outlet UnHerd

Instead of offering to integrate Russia into the West, as many diplomats urged in 1991, the US expanded NATO to its borders. “What is the purpose of NATO other than to oppose Russia? If you’re addressing Russia in a hostile way from the beginning, of course their reaction is going to be hostile back,” Kennedy said.

He described what happened in Kiev in 2014 as “essentially a coup d’etat” supported by the US, recalling the infamous phone call in which Victoria Nuland was “handpicking a new cabinet” hostile to Moscow. 

“If Mexico did that and then started killing – they killed 14,000 Russians in Donbass, the Ukrainian government – if Mexico did that to expatriate Americans, we’d invade in a second,” Kennedy said, adding that Putin “repeatedly told us: these are red lines, you’re crossing.”

Ukrainian assassination attempt on Putin foiled – Kremlin
Read more
 Ukrainian assassination attempt on Putin foiled – Kremlin

 

American leaders should be able to “put yourself in the other guy’s shoes,” just like his uncle John F. Kennedy did during the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962, stepping back from the brink of nuclear war, which all of his advisers were pushing for.

Kennedy condemned the “barbaric and illegal invasion” of Ukraine and called Putin a ‘gangster’, a ‘thug’ and a ‘bully’, but said the conflict needed to be settled quickly, because the US had already “sacrificed 300,000” Ukrainians in battle. While the White House presented aiding Kiev as a humanitarian mission, “every step that we’ve taken has been to enlarge the conflict and to maximize bloodshed,” he said.

“Let’s be honest: It’s a US war against Russia, to essentially sacrifice the flower of Ukrainian youth in an abattoir of death and destruction for the geopolitical ambition of the neocons” to see regime change in Moscow, Kennedy said. He added that the people who created the problem weren’t capable of settling it.

Asked about his proposed solution, Kennedy said that something like the Minsk accords, agreeing to keep Ukraine out of NATO, and removing nuclear missile launchers from Russia’s borders might work. 

 



Wednesday, March 22, 2023

ON THE PUTIN-XI MEETING OF MARCH 2023

Since the days of Nixon and Kissinger, US has aimed to split Moscow and Beijing. The Biden Presidency pushed them into marriage.  Biden is a catastrophe for the US.  More nations are dumping the dollar and using the Yuan as reserve currency. Worse, the new anti-US grouping appears to be Russia, China, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, North Korea, and add on Afghanistan, Syria, possibly Turkey, Solomon Islands, Cuba, Venezuela, Nicaragua, possibly South Africa - that is a huge bloc lining up against the US, thanks to the brilliant leadership of Joe Biden and the Democrats.

Wednesday, March 15, 2023

AN AGING PROBLEM!

    Dear folks, excuse me, but I am old.  Now, I cannot remember, President Biden's Sanctions, were they meant to bring down Russia's Putin, or the Western Banking System?   (Just joking)

Saturday, May 28, 2022

AMERICA'S BIG MISTAKE IN UKRAINE///TAIWAN pART 1

   RFLECTIONS ON THE WAR AND THE BIGGER ONE COMING by HUGH MURRAY

 Ukraine's Vlod Zelensky is the well known leader who heads his nation in time of war.  The former television comedian is transformed into the new Churchill, urging his nation to fight on against the foreign invaders.  The media shows him as the man of the hour, the man of courage.  Or, is he simply the Greta Thunberg of Ukraine?


      Greta Thunberg began her activism for the environment at age 15, and her demands that adults see the necessity of protecting the environment, as she sees it, made her into a media spokes girl in the left wing media.  Her demands that governments do as she says is almost laughable, but since her message is that of the left, the media promote her, and legislators throughout the world listen to her and try to accommodate her demands.  If she were not presenting the left-wing message in a new package, the left-leaning media would never have promoted her.  She is the same old green message in a new, Swedish wine bottle.  Still trying to shame, insult, bully nations into doing what she wants.  Even in failure, she gets the publicity for her left-wing message.


     Zelensky is the latest version of Thunberg, accusing, shaming, demanding, that nations support his nation financially, legally, and militarily.  He is very popular in the US with Democrats and Rhino Republicans.  No matter his packaging, is Zelensky correct in his message?


     Ukraine was one of the provinces of the Czarist Russian Empire.  Allied with Britain, France, and the other allied nations in "the Great War" (WWI), Russia did poorly, and in early 917 there was a revolution that brought a Western type government to power, until the fall when Lenin and the Bolsheviks seized control.  German armies continued to invade while the Reds sought to expand their internal control in a civil war.  Forced to sign a peace treaty, Red Russia ceded chunks of territory to newly independent countries, like Ukraine, which were to become German satellites.  Half year later, Germany and the Central Powers surrendered to the Allies, and Germany had to withdraw from all its gains in the East.  Soon after, the Communist led Ukraine requested to join the Soviet Union.  Under Stalin the Reds sought to collectivize agriculture, and use crops to get funds to industrialize.  Ukraine, the traditional "bread basket" of Europe, became the center of a war against the successful farmers (kulaks), whose crops were taken, and whose family members starved or were sent to Gulags (to freeze or starve).  The policy led to the deaths of millions of Ukrainians, the first of many Communist experiment in economics that led to millions more deaths under Mao and the Khmer Rouge.  But as the left reasoned, to make an omelet one has to break a few eggs.


    During WWII, when the Germans invaded the Ukraine, many natives were happy to see the end of Stalin's rule.  The choice was between Hitler and Stalin, 2 monsters.  For the Jews of Ukraine, Hitler meant death, so they had no choice.  Others did; and there were those who sympathized with and even fought along side the German invaders during WWII.  For a movie depiction of the division, see "Europa, Europa," for Poles fleeing the German invaders.  Then news that the Soviets have invaded Poland from the East, and many Poles turn around to run toward the Germans, while others were still running away.  In the West it is easy for us to condemn those who chose one or the other, but we did not have to choose between 2 monsters, one worse than the other.  Our leaders, far from perfect, have generally avoided such savagery on such mass scales.


      After WWII, there was a kind of civil war in Poland and Ukraine for a few years before the Communists could regain complete control.


     After Stalin's death, Khruschev became the next leader of the USSR.  A Ukrainian, he changed to border of Ukraine, giving it Russian territory.  This made little difference as they were all part of the USSR.  Then Reagan and Gorbachev, the Wall falls, and so does the USSR.  The enlarged Ukraine becomes independent, with a large Russian speaking population.  Indeed, in all ot the break-away nations of the USSR, Russian minorities were suddenly stranded in places like Turkmenistan.  Ukraine was close to Russia, and had a corrupt, pro-Russian elected government, until a Western led coup in 2014.  To protect the Russian naval bases, Putin invaded the Crimea, and some eastern parts of the Ukraine declared their independence from that nation and looked to Russia.  Kiev has never recognized these Russian enclaves, even though a Minsk Agreement was supposed to do so.  The new Ukraine government continued some aspects of the old - like corruption.  But now US military sponsored scientific labs in Ukraine and other former Soviet lands.  The US was very worried that these labs would fall to Russian troops with the invasion this year.  Russia alleged they were scenes of biological and chemical warfare.  The US denied the allegations.  But why was the US military sponsoring these labs?


      Why is the US subsidizing the war in the Ukraine?  Without American backing, Zelensky would have to go to the negotiating table and make a deal.  Without the support of the Democrats (and its media) and the UniParty Republicans (mainly Rhinos), (and major support from most of Fox News) Ukraine would sue for peace.  America mobilized all its allies to get on board the train to Ukraine.  NATO (North Atlantic?), and for the economic war against Russia, even Japan.  India and a few others have resisted America's attempt to isolate Russia, diplomatically, and especially economically.


     Democrats and Rhino Republican maintain that the border of Ukraine is sacrosanct and must be maintained against the Russian invasion.  Yet, Democrats and many Rhino Republicans support the invasion of the border of the US by those crossing in from Mexico.  Pres. Biden and his Administration collude with pro-invasion organizations who teach foreigners how to lie so they will seem like legitimate refugees.  Groups like the American Civil Liberties Union and various NGOs and religious organizations all partake in this fraud.  Some gain considerable US federal dollars by "helping" the refugees.  Lately, I think it is near a thousand a day who come across the border.  Some have links to drug cartels, some are returning after having been deported, a few are potential terrorists.  It is clear that neither Democrats nor Rhino Republicans care at all about America's southern border, but they are cheerleading the efforts to defend that of Ukraine.


      The Ukraine is corrupt, and according to Panama Papers Pres. Zelensky has many off-shore accounts too.  More important, American weapons manufacturers can make a mint if the US subsidizes the war in Ukraine, as it did in Afghanistan, as it did in Iraq, as it did in Vietnam, etc.  So left-wing ideas about flooding the US with refugees (and the donor class Republicans favor cheap labor which comes with the thousands of illegal aliens(, and Uniparty (Dems and Rhinos) may get a% of the military contracts so they cheeer the blue and yellow flag and are delighted when Zelensky "speaks truth" that he needs more money and military aid.  Why, Zelensky is better than Thornberg in shaming us into doing what we already want to do.


       The problem is - the US has no real national interest in Ukraine.  Worse, a war is on the horizon in which we have vital interest, and we are ruining our own economy, sending military materiale to Ukraine, forcing Putin into China's arms, when we are about to face a conflict with the People's Republic of China. 

              END OF PART 1

Thursday, May 26, 2022

Prof. Jason Jellison on Pat Buchanan and Russian leader Vladimir Putin

 (A friend who works in Asia had a different view of the Ukrainian war.  You might find it interesting.)  

Good Morning Hugh,

As is so often the case, I strongly agree with Pat Buchanan.  What not only American leaders, but even American society is doing to Russia is very, VERY dangerous.  From my Far Eastern vantage point, I would warn any American/Westerner who would listen that WE (America & Western Europe) are backing a wounded Russia into a corner and I will warn anyone that even the most benevolent and loving of wounded wolves- once backed into a corner with few options- eventually has no choice but to finally bring out the teeth, claws, and eventually strike back.  From my side of the pond, what America is doing with Russia is utterly insane and truly redefines the word 'stupid.'  [One does not play games with, or insult, a superpower who possesses 6,900 nuclear warheads and better missiles than almost anything America reliably has on hand.]

Also, Hugh, to be totally frank, the hypocrisy which America has fallen into simply stuns me.  Back in the Kennedy years, we nearly had a nuclear holocaust when the Soviets were caught installing nuclear missiles in Fidel's Cuba; a mere 90 miles from Florida (in our own backyard).  Yet, even on Fox News or The American Thinker, nary a word has been printed about the U.S. manufactured missile systems which we had quietly installed inside of Chernobyl's nuclear exclusion zone [which is also something like only 100 miles away from Russia's back doorstep]. 

Thus, the USA has fallen into such dramatic moral decay that we [several successive Presidential Administrations & Congresses spanning all major American political stripes] seemed to have not a care at all about funding somewhere between 25-30 biolabs which we 100% know for certain were continuing to research USSR-era biopathogens which were supposed to have been destroyed all the way back in the mid-1990's; and those same biolabs were almost certainly involved in some kind of Gain of Function [Wuhan-style] research for purposes whose final aims were probably far less than anything but Godly or Holy.  (I sincerely doubt our untrustworthy U.S. Federal Government funded those 25-30 biolabs because they wanted to help make sure the Russians did not come down sick with the flu or a light case of the sniffles.)

So, to conclude my response, while I am largely neutral in this Civil War, I wish both Russia and the Ukraine Territory well.  However, Russia's military blunders in staging their Security Action (war) within the Ukraine were not just stunning and not just a geopolitical embarrassment, but also indicate that the entire Russian Military will need a complete overhaul before Russia even thinks of managing anything beyond the most elementary of basic national security measures. [...as in arresting illegal migrants &/or illegal trespassers.]  This was a military DISASTER & HUMILIATION FOR RUSSIA WHICH SEVERELY HARMED RUSSIA'S STANDING ON THE WORLD STAGE, no matter how one tries to spin it.  Bluntly, Russia was about as effective in the Ukraine Invasion as America has been effective in keeping illegal aliens from swimming over to our shores.  [UTTER DISASTER.]

Hugh, I strongly respect President Putin as well as his government.  But, Mr. Putin's administration screwed up the Ukraine Affair six ways to Sunday.  As of the time of this writing, I will simply dispassionately state that the cost of this fiasco is somewhere between 20,000 to 25,000 dead Russian soldiers, two very badly wounded countries, organized campaigns of sexual violence on both sides and- for Russia- the former U.S.S.R. may soon largely lose a war which they should have easily won within a matter of only days.  Russia was incompetent & easily should have overpowered both the Ukraine, as well as its cowardly Western Godfathers who yank all of Zelenskyy's strings.

After all, only one week after Trump was deposed in a stolen election, on February 1st, 2021, the Tatmadaw [Burmese Army] seized Burma and accomplished most of President Putin's kind of dreams in less than merely 4 hours because the Tatmadaw runs a competent, well-trained military.  Yet, as of the time of this writing, it may be months or even years before President Putin can secure & rule the Ukraine; at which point the Ukraine will be little more than a pile of smoking ruin which the Russians will have to rebuild at the cost of one big heap of Russia's very own Rubles.  They will also predictably face many years of a domestic insurgency so, even if Russia 'wins' this crazy thing called the Ukraine, I believe President Putin will find that just as soon as he erects a grand new building, it shan't be long before domestic Ukrainian resistance fighters find a creative way to crash all his new buildings straight to the ground.

Okay.  I'll simply wrap up by stating that I will forward my ad hoc military analysis of Russia's profound strategic errors to you later today.  I actually am quite supportive of Russia but, to be totally honest, Hugh, either Putin himself (or his generals) not only screwed up a war which they very easily should have won, but now may largely lose the war.  Of course, in the event of a loss or some kind of stalemate, Russia might parade the U.S.-manufactured missile systems which the Russians dug out of the ground at Chernobyl & maybe also parade some of our U.S.-funded biolab concerns out in the streets for all of the world to see.  ...but at the cost of 20,000 to 25,000 dead Russian soldiers [so far] and a devastated Ukraine [the heartland of Russia], well, much as Sun Tzu warned over 2,000 years ago in The Art of War, that's not much for the Kremlin to gloat about.

So, I guess I shall close by simply saying this:  

For President Putin, he is about to potentially lose a war or preside over a disaster.  If I could have the honor of advising him at this particularly late hour in a fight which the Russian President CHOSE to start, I'd tell him either go all the way & finish what President Putin chose to start, or prepare to pay the consequences for a lost war.  (...and when you lose a war which you chose to start, the consequences of such a loss are simply not predictable.)

Keep in touch, Hugh.

Monday, July 11, 2016

ISLAMIC TERROR - AMERICAN TREASON & WHO MAY HAVE CREATED ISIS

                                                by Hugh Murray


Steve Nelson (Stjepan Mesaros), a native of Croatia had come to the US as a teen and joined the Communist Party (CPUSA) in the 1920s.  He fought in the Spanish Civil War against the Fascists and returned to America.  He also came under federal surveillance during WWII.  Nelson was then a leader of the American Communist Party on the west coast with influence in left-wing labor unions.  During war, Americans endure decreased civil liberties, and the federal government had rounded up and interned Japanese nationals and American citizens of Japanese heritage; the government also rounded up and interned German and Italian nationals too.  Nelson was not interned, but his home in Oakland, California, was bugged.
          On 10 April 1943 Nelson received a visitor, Vasily Zarubin, an employee of the Soviet Embassy, who gave Nelson money.  Zarubin explained he wanted Nelson to place “reliable” workers in certain jobs that the Soviets deemed important.  Apparently, until hearing the recordings, the FBI had no knowledge of the Manhattan Project – the American effort to create an atomic bomb.  The Soviet employee was telling the American Communist to place Communist spies in sensitive positions to relay information about American progress in developing the bomb.
          When FBI Director, J. Edgar Hoover, became aware of the attempt by a Soviet Embassy official to use the American Communist Party to create a spy network, Hoover acted.  On 7 May 1943 Hoover wrote the White House.  He wrote to Harry Hopkins, who was then considered the chief advisor to Pres. Franklin Roosevelt, especially on Soviet affairs.  Hopkins was so important, he literally lived in the White House and was sometimes called Roosevelt’s Co-President.  Hopkins, alerted by Hoover to such important information, also acted quickly.  Whether Hopkins informed Roosevelt, is still a question.  But Hopkins jumped to insure that nothing like this would occur again.  Hopkins contacted the Soviet Embassy, telling them about the bugging incident, warning them that the FBI was on to them, and urging that they be more careful in the future!
          Hollywood still produces films like “Trumbo,”(2015)  showing the persecution of an excellent screenwriter who was blacklisted for standing up for his political beliefs.  Author Diane West, in her fascinating American Betrayal, quotes Dalton Trumbo in an article published in 1946 in the Communist Daily Worker, in which Trumbo  concedes that the Hollywood “progressives” could not always make the films they wanted, but they certainly could prevent the anti-Communist films from ever being produced.(West, pp. 88,92) Trumbo was boasting that he was one of those who could veto films and blacklist those who might defame the  workers’ paradise led by Joseph Stalin.
          Unfortunately, it is not only Hollywood that distorts that time period.  The academedia complex assure us that the McCarthy era was one of paranoia, persecution, and the destruction of civil liberties and freedom in the US.  Was it all paranoia?  Why was Steve Nelson taking the money from Soviet Embassy official Zarubin?  Why did the White House try to protect the Soviet spies?
          .  In January 2012 Russian leader Vladimir Putin in a public address praised the Western scientists who provided atomic secrets to the Soviets so that the Communist regime could develop its own nuclear bombs.  Putin emphasized that the Soviets were provided “suitcases” filled with material; “suitcases full” he stressed.  Americans spying on behalf of the Soviets was not paranoia; it was a reality.  And the consequence of that spying aided Stalin to develop nuclear weapons faster, and probably helped in other areas of military advance.
          Soviet coded messages were sent from the US to the USSR, and the American Army began to keep records of these.  Eventually, the “Venona files” would make headlines, and confirm the treason of several prominent figures.  However, even now, only some 10%  of the Venona files and been decoded.  Soviet espionage against the US was real and much more extensive than people realize.  But why should they realize it?  Hollywood ignores it to portray a hard-core Stalinist as a man persecuted for free speech.  Academics are no better.  Most are liberal or “progressive,” and even if they admit the Soviet was an enemy to American interests, they dismiss the influence of the American Communist Party and of any spies for the Soviets.  Putin did not dismiss those who passed along information to the Soviets – Putin publicly thanked them.  Americans were not paranoid during the McCarthy era.  There was treason in the American government, “a conspiracy so vast” as Sen. McCarthy analyzed it.  Most Americans to this day are unaware of the extent of Communist penetration of the American government and its consequences.  And the consequences may not have been merely atomic.  When during the Cold War, Republicans asked “Who lost China?” it was not such a foolish question.  When Japan surrendered in 1945, war in China continued, now between Nationalists under Chiang Kai-shek and Communists under Mao Zedong.  Some in the US State Dept. demanded that Chiang form a coalition government with Mao.  Chiang had once done so, and it had proved disastrous, so he was determined not to become ensnared again in a coalition with the Communists.  While the Soviets began to supply Mao, sometimes with booty from the defeated Japanese, efforts by the Americans to supply Chiang with weapons and money were either continually delayed, or sabotaged.  Were there members of the American State Dept. who favored Mao over Chiang; Communism over alternatives?  Were they responsible for the failure of supplies to reach Chiang?
          In early morning hours of 12 June 2016 American-born Omar Mateen entered a gay nightclub in Orlando, Florida, and proceeded to shoot and kill at least 49 people who, till then, had been enjoying a night out.  Omar was not shy about his motives – during the massacre he phoned 911 to announce his allegiance to the Islamic State.  He also praised Allah and declared that he was murdering because he wanted the US to “stop bombing my country.”  (Wikipedia interpreted this survivor’s memory as referring to Mateen’s allegiance to the Islamic State, whereas James Bradley on the left-wing counterpunch.org viewed it as referring to Afghanistan, home of Mateen’s parents.  Either way, Mateen did not identify his country as the United States.)   Some days later, the national Attorney General, Loretta Lynch told reporters that the Justice Department would not release the full transcripts of those 911 calls.  Any mention of the Islamic State would be redacted, and Allah was now written as God.  Apparently, one was not to presume that Omar was a Muslim!  Erase all such references, by US Govt. decree (for our own good, of course).  Even before Atty Gen Lynch attempted to impose her politically correct views on the 911 tapes, pc had already entered the fray.  I think the very day after the shooting; an FBI representative came to Orlando to provide a report.  Most of it seemed factual.  But before closing, the FBI spokesman stressed to the TV audience that Islam is a religion of peace.  Thus, PC had infected the FBI even before FBI Director James Comey announced that no reasonable prosecutor would indict Hillary Clinton for her email abuses.
          Democrats are as unwilling to denounce Islamic terrorism as 1948 Progressives were unwilling to denounce Stalinsim.  How could Democrats handle the Orlando shooting?  Democrats went on a frenzied search for the motive(s) of Omar in murdering so many young people.  It was simply another “hate” crime.  Omar had been depressed, and may have had mental problems.  He may have been secretly gay, and some alleged he had a gay lover.  Omar was bi-polar.  The liberal media were flooded with such stories searching for the real motives behind Omar Mateen’s shooting spree.  But these stories invariably tried to avoid mention of Allah and his allegiance to ISIS.  Many Democrats simply refused to state the mass murderer had anything to do with radical Islamic terrorism.
          Meanwhile, the Democrats in Congress constructed another ploy – it was the fault of guns.  We need stricter gun regulations, more gun laws.  About 100 Democratic members of Congress then planned to obstruct the work of the national House of Representatives by having a sit-in on the floor of the House, while they demanded gun-control laws and sang old civil rights songs.  Congress had already rejected the proposed legislation in Committee, but Democrats vowed to continue their tactics until their minority proposals were passed into law by the majority.  They were offended when one Republican Representative shouted at them, that the issue is Islamic terrorism.  The Democrats also forget that the most deadly act of terrorism on American soil, in which over 3,000 people were killed, was performed without a gun being used - by the terrorists who brought down the World Trade Center in New York and part of the Pentagon in Washington.
          Moreover, how could Orlando possibly be about Islamic terrorism?  Omar Mateen was born in the USA.  In the summer of 1968 a dazed Democrat emerged from a hotel in California, nearly in tears.  The man was bewildered, incomprehensible.  “How could he say that?” he asked the TV reporter.  The gentleman had left the scene where Sirhan Sirhan had just assassinated Democratic Sen. Robert Kennedy (who had just won the California Democratic Presidential primary).  The gentleman quoted Sirhan as saying, “I did it for my country.”  “How could he say that?  How could he believe that?”  The gentleman clearly did not understand, for the answer is simple.  Sirhan was Palestinian.  A Christian Palestinian, but Palestinian.  His country was not the US.  He killed Kennedy for what he thought would be the best interest of Palestine.
          When Omar Mateen announced he had killed many people for his country, he had identified his country as the Islamic State.  Mateen may have been born in the US, but he did not consider himself an American.  His concerns were Allah and pledging allegiance to ISIS.  Mateen was killing Americans while simultaneously pledging allegiance to the Islamic State.  And the American Attorney General tried to prevent us from knowing that!  Just as Harry Hopkins sought to obstruct the FBI in 1943 and prevent it from doing its job of protecting American citizens and American atomic secrets from Soviet spies, there now seems to be another group – inside the US Govt. – intent on preventing any exposure of Islamic terrorism and its supporters.
          The Muslim Brotherhood (hereafter MB) was founded in Egypt in 1928 as a movement to liberate the Muslim world from the infidels.  It was a nationalist movement, and anti-colonial movement, and one mixed with religion (like many other nationalist movements, as in Ireland, Poland, the Balkans, etc.)  The founder, Hassan al-Banna was a 22-year-old teacher, who grew to admire Hitler, wrote to him, and was encouraged by him.  The MB grew in the 1930s as did its hostility to Jews and Zionism.  During WWII, as Gen. Erwin Rommel’s armies pushed beyond the Libyan border into Egypt (and many Egyptian Jews prepared to purchase tickets for South Africa), the Muslim Brotherhood readied to join the Axis advance when Rommel routed the British. The Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, expelled from the British mandated lands for his anti-Western views, turned up in Berlin where he met Hitler and began broadcasting to the Middle East on Radio Berlin.  Sometimes his message was simple, “Kill the Jews!”  However, when British Gen.Bernard Montgomery defeated Rommel at el-Alemein in October 1942, that Axis defeat would delay MB dreams for decades.  With Axis defeat, the Mufti was able to escape Allied prosecution with the help of MB politicians.
          Beginning in December 2010 in Tunisia with the series of uprisings collectively called “the Arab Spring,” people in many countries went into the streets to demand change, and young people using social media, often cooperating with Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) , began revolutions in the Arab world.  The first government to fall to the change was Tunisia in northern Africa, and the stirrings spread.  Cairo’s Tahrir Square became a scene of daily protests against the long-term leadership of Hosni Mubarak, whose authoritarian government encouraged tourism from all over the world, and who maintained friendly relations with the US and neighborly relations with Israel.  But Tahrir Square became the center of daily mass gatherings denouncing the government, where there were now huge pictures of Mubarak with a Star of David scratched across his face.  Both Pres. Obama and Sec. of State Hillary showed great enthusiasm for the changes stirring in the Arab Spring   The Western media portrayed the gatherings quite sympathetically.  One night CBS correspondent Lara Logan, an attractive young blond, found herself in the square forcibly separated from her cameramen, her clothing ripped, and she was groped and sexually assaulted.  But the general euphoria overwhelmed reports of such unfortunate urges that managed to surface.  In February 2011 Mubarak fell and free elections would be held.  Democracy would come to Egypt!
          Elections were held, and Mohammed Morsi, the MB candidate won.  Hillary and Obama were proud of their policy that expanded democracy.  With the MB victory, Jewish tourists and businessmen quickly departed.  The Copts, Egypt’s Christians, who comprise some 10% of the population, suddenly found themselves under attack.  Ancient churches were set ablaze by the Muslim majority.  Muslims, expressing their empowered status, began beating Christian men and attacking Christian women.  Some leaders of the new MB regime sought to ally with Palestinians in Gaza against Israel.  All Jews were monkeys, declared some of the new clerics in power.  One prominent Muslim imam urged the government to destroy the pagan relics of old – that is, destroy the pyramids! (When ISIS attained power elsewhere, it destroyed Jonah’s tomb and part of the ancient ruined city of Palmyra.  One should take such talk seriously.)  Happily, this ruthless MB regime was toppled by the army led by Abdel Al-Sisi in 2013.  In response, Obama cut off aid to Egypt’s new military government in Egypt, but Al-Sisi then sought support from Russia’s Putin.  
            Col. Ghadaffi’s Libya had become a leading terrorist nation after he had come to power in 1969  (and he helped subsidize the Black Panthers and the Black Muslims inside the US.)  Ghadaffi’s regime was the likely source for the 1986 bombing of a Berlin club popular with American soldiers, and Ghadaffi was behind the downing of Pan Am flight 103 that killed the plane’s occupants over Lockerbie, Scotland in December 1988.  However, by the 21sth century Ghadaffi’s government had moderated.  But Obama and Hillary had other plans for Libya, and decided to seek Ghadaffi’s overthrow.  In summer of 2011 Libya joined the Arab revolutionary Spring, and by October 2011, Ghadaffi himself was dead.  Obama and Hillary next set their sights on the dictatorship in Syria of Bashar al-Assad.  It is alleged that Americans were to supply weapons to rebels in Syria through newly liberated Libya.  Indeed, some allege that American Ambassador Christopher Stevens was in Benghazi to facilitate gun-running deals with violent types whom he hoped would help overthrow Syria’s Assad.
            The fall of Ghadaffi left power vacuums and chaos in Libya.  Not all of the rebels were sympathetic to the West.  Working in the eastern city of Benghazi, American Ambassador Stevens was fully aware of the deteriorating situation, and a number of times requested reinforcements for protection.  The requests (to the Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton?) were denied.  As the anniversary of the 9/11 terror attack approached, neither Obama nor Hillary sent help.  Four Americans, including our Ambassador, were killed in a prepared attack by Muslim extremists on 9 September 2012.  Then, Sec. Hillary Clinton, Pres. Obama, and Under Sec. Susan Rice all continually lied to the American people, blaming the attack and murders on anger as a result of a video that mocked the Prophet Mohammad. The film was produced by an Egyptian Christian residing in the US.  Obama and Hillary even bought time on Pakistani television to denounce the video and its creator.  Obama’s federal government soon found grounds to imprison the Egyptian Copt.  I am less certain if he and Hillary did anything to apprehend the murderers of the Americans in Benghazi.
            Under Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama, there has been a policy that is often sympathetic to Muslims at the expense of the American people.  Recall the original 9/11 attacks in the US, in which Muslim terrorists hijacked American civilian planes to attack the World Trade Center twin towers and the Pentagon (and a 4th plane was downed by passengers when they realized the Muslims were intending to use their plane as a missile).  Over 3,000 innocent Americans were killed by the Muslim terrorists in those attacks - and not a gun was fired.  Later, an official report was issued, but 28 pages were kept secret because they apparently showed connections between the terrorists and high Saudi officials.  Pres. Bush preferred a cover-up.  And so does Pres. Obama.  The cover-up continues to this day.
However, the situation grew worse under Obama.  He appointed as his first Sec. of State Hillary Clinton, one of whose most trusted advisors is Huma Abedin.  Although Huma had married Anthony Weiner, then a prominent Jewish Congressman from New York, she had links of a very different kind.  Her husband had hoped to become the mayor of New York City, but Weiner’s sex texting, when it became known, roused sufficient embarrassment, even in liberal NY, to force Weiner to withdraw from the race.  But even after the deflation of Weiner’s political prospects, Huma retained her post as a major advisor to one of the most influential people in America.  In addition to working for Hillary, Huma had links to the World Muslim League and the Muslim Brotherhood.
In a 2009 ruling, a Federal Judge in the case of the Holy Land Foundation concluded that the Muslim Brotherhood was an un-indicted co-conspirator funneling money to a terrorist organization, Hamas.  The new Obama Administration sought to ride to the rescue.  In his 22 Jun 2016 article on frontpage.com. Joseph Klein described Obama’s approach.   In a speech in Cairo in June 2009 Obama announced he would use his Presidency to “‘fight against negative stereotypes of Islam wherever they appear’…his administration conducted what amounted to a censorship within the government…For example, an anti-terrorism conference scheduled for August…2011 was cancelled after Islamic groups protested…the content of several presentations and the speakers.”  
Klein added, “Beginning in the fall of 2011, the Dept. of Homeland Security’s Office of Civil Rights and Civil Liberties undertook a campaign to purge any critical references to Islamic ideology and beliefs from intelligence and law enforcement training materials.”
Klein also reports that Patrick Haney, a retired, senior official of the DHS claimed that he was ordered to purge records he had accumulated in a data base that tied potential jihadists with various Islamic groups.  Haney alleged that had those files not been purged, there would have been a greater chance to detect and halt Mateen before he killed 49 people in Orlando.  On TV Haney stated he personally did not delete the files, but it was done by higher-ups at DHS.  And consider further, Mateen worked as a security guard for a company that was contracted to DHS!  He passed their security checks.  Someone wondered if he might have one day become a guard at a nuclear plant!  Is the government doing its job of protecting us from Muslim terrorists?
National Public Radio is hardly right-wing radio, but even its reporters had difficulties trying to explain the failure to recognize the threat posed by Army Major Nidal  Hasan.  Hasan was a psychiatrist, and some of those interviewed must have been his colleagues.  They were shocked to hear the hatred Hasan expressed toward America’s efforts in the Middle East.  They wondered what kind of counseling he was providing for soldiers needing psychiatric help.  Yet, these fellow professionals dared not officially complain, because they knew that doing so would be a mark against them, showing they might be racist, or prejudiced against Muslims, and it might cause them problems down the road in politically correct America.  Hasan wanted out of the army and he sought to avoid being sent to Afghanistan, but he could  not win the proper release.  So on 5 November 2009 at Ft. Hood, Texas, a gun-free zone, Major Hasan proceeded to kill 13 of his fellow soldiers and injure 30 more.  Islamic terrorism?  NO, concluded the Obama Administration.  This was simply work-place violence.  Just like the Obama’s Dept. of Justice is still searching for the real motive that caused Omar Mateen to kill 49 in Orlando.  Surely it was not Islamic terrorism.
Mateen a lone wolf?  Before his mass murders, Mateen sold his home to a relative for about $1.  Did they not ask any questions as to why?  At such a price?  The mosque Omar attended was the same one that inspired Moner Abu Salha to go to Syria as a suicide bomber in 2014.   Pure coincidence, I’m sure.  Mateen’s 2nd wife drove him to the Orlando bar.  She accompanied him and helped him purchase weapons.  And Mateen’s father is an Afghan and has his own videoTV show on politics in Afghanistan.  So clearly none of this influenced Omar Mateen; clearly he was a lone wolf who had nothing to do with Islamic terrorism.  He murdered 49 for some other reason, all alone.
The Russians warned the Americans about another immigrant family that we welcomed into the US, the Tsarnaevs.  They came as immigrants to the US and were soon ensconced on welfare.  They were Muslims sympathetic to radical Islam and terrorism.  Before setting off bombs on 15 April 2013 at the Boston Marathon – killing 3 and injuring 264 – the brothers had apparently killed a Jew in a “drug” deal (or perhaps merely for the Islamist ideal of killing a Jew).  After the bombing, the mother endorsed her sons’ actions, and she left America for her homeland.  I would hope her welfare payments have been stopped.
Why were the Russian warnings about this family as possible terrorists ignored by the American authorities?  Who is responsible for permitting such a murderous family into America?  And if not the individual, what policies prevent America from barring such potentially violent immigrants?
During WWII a policy of alliance with and appeasement toward the Soviet Union was adopted by high elements in the Administration of FDR, and possibly including Roosevelt himself; these policies resulted in the stealing of atomic secrets, which greatly advanced the Soviet development of its own bombs.  Furthermore, pro-Communist policies inside the US State, Treasury, and other federal departments, sabotaged aid to Nationalist leader Chiang Kai-Shek, and sabotaged help to anti-Communist elements in Yugoslavia, Poland, and other lands.
Under Pres. George W. Bush and especially under Pres. Obama, a policy has developed so that America cannot defend itself against Muslim terrorists.  Additionally, Obama’s, and Hillary’s association with the MB and the Council of American Islamic Relations (CAIR) present a great danger.  Those groups assert that they are simply  defending civil rights and civil liberties for Muslims, but in reality they may be out to destroy the civil rights and civil liberties of those who expose the bigotry and history of violence and terror and slavery and oppression and terrorism in Islam?  Islam is not a religion of “peace.”  It grew through conquest.  It demands not equality with other groups; it demands submission by all to Islam and to its oppressive sharia law.  The Obama Administration pretends that Islam is a religion of peace.  But on this important issue, the Obama Administration lies.  The Obama Administration declared the Major Hasan murders to be workplace violence.  The Obama Administration lied.  The Obama Adm. demands that the FBI coordinate its anti-terror activities with groups like CAIR.  But CAIR  and similar groups are notorious for defending terrorism.  It will simply obstruct efforts to prevent terrorism. (For more on CAIR, see Daniel Pipes, “Is CAIR a Terror Group?” National Review, 28 Nov. 2014)  No wonder the Tsarnaevs were undetected until they bombed the Boston Marathon.  No wonder the Muslim terrorists in San Bernadino, Syed Farook and his foreign-born wife Tashfeen Malik, were allowed in the country and under the radar and allowed to murder 14 and seriously injure 22 on 2 December 2015.  They killed them, most of them his co-workers, at a party.  No wonder Omar Mateen, even after mouthing off against this group and that, was allowed to pass security clearances and get a job in security at a company that has contracts with the DHS.  No wonder he was allowed to kill 49 at Pulse night club.
I do not maintain that all Muslims are terrorists.  There are peaceful Muslims who are willing to abide by the American Constitution.  But there are other Muslims who reject America, Western civilization, our notions of freedom, and out Constitution.  Our government is failing utterly to distinguish between them.  Worse, it appears as if some inside   our bureaucracies sympathize with those who would use terrorism against us.  In our efforts not to offend Muslims, not to profile, not to track those who favor the Islamic State or other tyrannical and terrorist groups, the US Government is betraying the American people.  Or rather, elements of the US Govt are doing so.    

The present Obama Administration policies are killing Americans.  It would be as if FDR had ordered J. Edgar Hoover’s FBI to coordinate with the Communist Party, USA, to uncover any Soviet spies in America.  The CPUSA would naturally tip off anyone under suspicion.  Indeed even the non-Communist, co-President Harry Hopkins did that too.  In the 1940s there was a vast conspiracy inside the US government working to aid international Communism.  Today, there appears to be conspirators inside the US government working to appease and provide easy access for Muslim terrorists.  The results of such appeasement policies will be the murder of innocent Americans and the long-term destruction of the USA.  It is time for a change.
         

Wednesday, December 31, 2014

WAR IN 2015?

Pat Buchanan is a columnist and has run for President of the US.  He ran for the Republican nomination, and lost, and in 2000 ran on a third party Reform Party ticket.  Al Gore and the Democrats won the popular vote that year, but Republican George W. Bush wan the electoral vote and became President, despite the loss of votes to Buchanan.  I should say that in 2000 I voted for Buchanan.  Here is his New Year's Greeting.
Hugh Murray

Is War in the Cards for 2015?

“If you see 10 troubles coming down the road, you can be sure that nine will run into the ditch before they reach you,” said Calvin Coolidge, whose portrait hung in the Cabinet Room of the Reagan White House.
Among the dispositions shared by the two conservatives was a determination to stay out of other people’s wars.
Peering into 2015, there are wars into which our interventionists are eager to plunge that represent no immediate or grave threat to us.
One is the war the Islamic State group is waging in Syria and Iraq, a menace so great, we are told, it may require U.S. ground troops.
But why? Syria and Iraq are 5,000 miles away. And because of itsbarbarism and incompetence, the Islamic State is losing support in the Sunni lands it now occupies.
The Kurds have halted the group’s advance toward Irbil, Iraq. Shiite militias, no friends of ours, have halted its advance toward Baghdad. The Islamic State is under steady drone and air attack by the U.S. and Arab allies. Iran is providing men and materiel to Damascus and Baghdad in their battle against the group.
Now the Turks and Gulf Arabs, including the Saudis, appear to have awakened to the threat and are weighing in against the Islamic State.
Why not let them do the fighting?
By staying out of the two world wars of the 20th century until the other great powers were fully engaged and horribly bled, America emerged triumphant with the fewest casualties and least damage.
That used to be called statesmanship.
Moreover, compared with Nazi Germany, imperial Japan, Stalin’s USSR and Mao’s China, the Islamic State doesn’t even make the “JV,” to use Barack Obama’s term.
Last month, the drums were beating for an attack on North Korea for what Sen. John McCain called a “new form of warfare” and what Sen. Lindsey Graham called “cyberterrorism” aided by China.
In “A Reply to Kim’s Cyberterrorism,” The Wall Street Journal urged a “forceful response” to deter “future attacks.” Swiftly, there followed the crashing of North Korea’s Internet system.
Query: If reports are true that Sony Pictures was hacked by ticked-off ex-employees yet North Korea’s Internet was brought down by a U.S. cyberattack, who is the cyberterrorist now?
Perhaps some of those Iranian technicians in Natanz who watched their centrifuges breaking down and blowing up from the Stuxnet virus have some thoughts on this.
But the most determined push for war in 2015 will come from neocons and interventionists who want a U.S.-Putin confrontation and regime change in Russia. And as Russia has a nuclear arsenal to match our own, this is a matter of real gravity.
Because of U.S.-EU sanctions on Russia for its role in Ukraine and the collapse in the price of oil, Russia’s principal export, the ruble has lost half its value, and the economy faces a contraction of 5 percent in 2015.
Real hardships lie ahead for the Russian people. But it seems they are not blaming Vladimir Putin for their troubles. They are blaming us.
“According to the respected Moscow ‘Levada Center,’ which measures political sentiment in Russian society,” the New York Observerreports, “74 percent of Russians have negative feelings towards the USA. … In the 1990s, 80 percent had positive attitude toward America.
“Currently, 76 percent of Russians hate Obama personally and only a meager 2 percent like him. … These are the maximum peaks of anti-American feelings in Russia in years. … Just last week Visa and MasterCard completely stopped their operations in Crimea, leaving more than 2 million people there without access to their money.”
One Moscow supermarket is using American flags as doormats, andcustomers are wiping their feet on them.
Before going home, Congress voted to levy new sanctions on Russia and authorized U.S. lethal weapons to be sent to Kiev to enable Ukraine to retake Luhansk and Donetsk and perhaps Crimea.
Obama signed the bill.
With Republican hawks taking over all congressional committees dealing with foreign and defense policy, peace and war, in the new year, there will be a competitive clamor that Obama send the guns to Kiev.
And what happens then?
Will Putin abandon the rebels and face the rage of the Russian people for backing down? Will Putin wait for the U.S. anti-tank weapons and ammunition to arrive and be sent to eastern Ukraine?
Or will Putin, a decisive sort, send in the Russian army before the U.S. weapons arrive, hive off a land bridge to Crimea–and maybe more for bartering purposes–and call Obama’s bluff?
In his New Year’s message to the Russian people, Putin hailed the annexation of Crimea as an achievement that will “forever remain a landmark in the national history.”
Doesn’t sound as if he’ll be giving Crimea up any time soon.
“It’s tough to make predictions, especially about the future,” said the wise Yogi Berra. But one prediction seems not too risky.
Either Obama and Putin enter negotiations over Ukraine or the war in Ukraine, with 4,700 dead since April, gets bigger and wider.