Paul Craig Roberts
Infowars.com
April 7, 2014
Infowars.com
April 7, 2014
The Obama regime has issued simultaneous threats
to the enemy it is making out of Russia and to its European NATO allies on
which Washington is relying to support sanctions on Russia. This cannot end
well.
Image: Barack Obama (Wiki Commons).
As even Americans living in a controlled media
environment are aware, Europeans, South Americans, and Chinese are infuriated
that the National Stasi Agency is spying on their communications. NSA’s affront
to legality, the US Constitution, and international diplomatic norms is
unprecedented. Yet, the spying continues, while Congress sits sucking its thumb
and betraying its oath to defend the Constitution of the United States.
In Washington mumbo-jumbo from the executive
branch about “national security” suffices to negate statutory law and
Constitutional requirements. Western Europe, seeing that the White House,
Congress and the Federal Courts are impotent and unable to rein-in the Stasi
Police State, has decided to create a European communication system that
excludes US companies in order to protect the privacy of European citizens and
government communications from the Washington Stasi.
The Obama regime, desperate that no individual
and no country escape its spy net, denounced Western Europe’s intention to
protect the privacy of its communications as “a violation of trade laws.”
Obama’s US Trade Representative, who has been
negotiating secret “trade agreements” in Europe and Asia that give US
corporations immunity to the laws of all countries that sign the agreements,
has threatened WTO penalties if Europe’s communications network excludes the US
companies that serve as spies for NSA. Washington in all its arrogance has told
its most necessary allies that if you don’t let us spy on you, we will use WTO
to penalize you.
So there you have it. The rest of the world now
has the best possible reason to exit the WTO and to avoid the Trans-Pacific and
Trans-Atlantic “trade agreements.” The agreements are not about trade. The
purpose of these “trade agreements” is to establish the hegemony of Washington
and US corporations over other countries.
In an unparalleled flouting of Washington’s
power over Europe, the US Trade Representative warned Washington’s NATO allies:
“US Trade Representative will be carefully monitoring the development of any
such proposals” to create a separate European communication network. http://rt.com/news/us-europe-nsa-snowden-549/
Washington is relying on the Chancellor of
Germany, the President of France, and the Prime Minister of the UK to place
service to Washington above their countries’ communications privacy.
It has dawned on the Russian government that
being a part of the American dollar system means that Russia is open to being
looted by Western banks and corporations or by individuals financed by them,
that the ruble is vulnerable to being driven down by speculators in the foreign
exchange market and by capital outflows, and that dependence on the American
international payments system exposes Russia to arbitrary sanctions imposed by
the “exceptional and indispensable country.”
Why it took the Russian government so long to
realize that the dollar payments system puts countries under Washington’s thumb
is puzzling. Perhaps the answer is the success of US Cold War propaganda. Cold
war propaganda portrayed America as the shining light, the great observer of
human rights, opponent of torture, upholder of liberty, defender of the
downtrodden, lover of peace, and benefactor of the world. This image survived
even as the US government prevented the rise of any representative governments
in Latin America and while Washington has bombed half a dozen countries into
rubble.
Russians emerging from communism naturally
aligned with the propaganda image of “American freedom.” That the US and Europe
were also corrupt and also had blood on their hands was overlooked. During the
years of anti-Soviet propaganda, Washington was murdering European women and
children and blaming communists. The truth came out when President of Italy
Francesco Cossiga publicly revealed Operation Gladio, a false flag terrorist
scheme run by the CIA and Italian Intelligence during the 1960s, 1970s, and
1980s that targeted European women and children with bombs in order to blame
the communists and thereby prevent European communist parties from making
electoral gains. This is one of the most well-known false flag events in
history, having resulted in extraordinary confessions by Italian intelligence.
Now that the Russian government understands that
Russia must depart the dollar system in order to protect Russian sovereignty,
President Putin has entered into barter/ruble oil deals with China and Iran.
However, Washington objects to Russia abandoning the dollar international
payment system. Zero Hedge, a more reliable news source than the US print and
TV media, reports that Washington has conveyed to both Russia and Iran that a
non-dollar oil deal would trigger US sanctions.http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2014-04-04/us-threatens-russia-sanctions-over-petrodollar-busting-deal
Washington’s objection to the Russian/Iranian
deal made it clear to all governments that Washington uses the dollar-based
international payments system as a means of control. Why should countries
accept an international payments system that infringes their sovereignty? What
would happen if instead of passively accepting the dollar as the means of
international payment, countries simply left the dollar system? The value of
the dollar would fall and so would Washington’s power. Without the power that
the dollar’s role as world reserve currency gives the US to pay its bills by
printing money, the US could not maintain its aggressive military posture or
its payoffs to foreign governments to do its bidding.
Washington would be just another failed empire,
whose population can barely make ends meet, while the One Percent who comprise
the mega-rich compete with 200-foot yachts and $750,000 fountain pins. The
aristocracy and the serfs. That is what America has already become. A throwback
to the feudal era.
It is only a matter of time before it is
universally recognized that the US is a failed state. Let’s pray this
recognition occurs before the arrogant inhabitants of Washington blow up the
world in pursuit of hegemony over others.
Washington’s provocative military moves against
Russia are reckless and dangerous. The buildup of NATO air, ground, and naval
forces on Russia’s borders in violation of the 1997 NATO-Russian treaty and the
Montreux Convention naturally strike the Russian government as suspicious, especially
as the buildups are justified on the basis of lies that Russia is about to
invade Poland, the Baltic States, and Moldova in addition to Ukraine.
These lies are transparent. The Russian Foreign
Minister Sergey Lavrov has asked NATO for an explanation, stating: “We are not
only expecting answers, but answers that will be based fully on respect for the
rules we agreed on.” http://rt.com/news/lavrov-ukraine-nato-convention-069/
Anders Fogh Rasmussen, Washington’s puppet
installed as NATO figurehead who is no more in charge of NATO than I am,
responded in a way guaranteed to raise Russian anxieties. Rasmussen dismissed
the Russian Foreign Minister’s request for explanation as “propaganda and
disinformation.”
Clearly, what we are experiencing are rising
tensions caused by Washington and NATO. These tensions are in addition to the
tensions arising from Washington’s coup in Ukraine. These reckless and
dangerous actions have destroyed the Russian government’s trust in the West and
are moving the world toward war.
Little did the protesters in Kiev, called into
the streets by Washington’s NGOs, realize that their foolishness was setting
the world on a path to armageddon.
Paul Craig Roberts was Assistant Secretary of
the Treasury for Economic Policy and associate editor of the Wall Street
Journal. He was columnist for Business Week, Scripps Howard News Service, and
Creators Syndicate. He has had many university appointments. His internet
columns have attracted a worldwide following. His latest book, The Failure of Laissez Faire
Capitalism and Economic Dissolution of the West is now
available.
This article was
posted: Monday, April 7, 2014 at 4:48 am
Tags: foreign
affairs
No comments:
Post a Comment