Russia’s official military newspaper, Krasnaya Zvezda, quoted top Russian military officials, saying they would consider all conventional ballistic missile fire as nuclear missiles in the future, and respond like a nuclear attack.
This is hugely important, because it makes all ballistic missiles, irrespective of payload, effectively non-usable, since Russia has an enormous arsenal of nuclear arms with which to retaliate. In this regard, a conventional first-strike couldn’t possibly be worth it.
Russia argues that they can’t determine the warhead on a ballistic missile as a way to explain the new policy. Almost certainly a factor would be that the US has been developing long-range non-nuclear missiles in the future.
Since Russia already had taken the position of possible retaliation to conventional attack with nuclear arms, this might have always been a potential Russian response to a missile strike. Formalizing it may be designed to warn against such specific attacks.
Are we “dead men walking” ?
In a bizarre,Freudian,karmic flip,the loony rapture nuts were kinda right…Argghh
It’s called “self fulfilling prophesy.”
Russia has stocked underground bunkers sufficient for its entire population, and over 2x the land mass of the contiguous U.S., which has no underground bunkers for anyone but its most elite few. Guess who lives and who dies.
Still everyone in a full exchange. Them, a little later.
A stern warning to the US first strike crazies.
Ya mean the US, which as the uber nuke power has not rescinded its position on first use.
Exactly.
Reagan’s SDI, or “Star Wars” was not for defense, but was meant as part of a first strike strategy. It is always about a first strike.
Precision guided ballistic missile could be used to disarm the other side’s nuclear arsenal. That is one major plan for them, one of the few that could justify the extreme cost of such weapons.
A disarming first strike is a nuclear attack, whether it uses nuclear weapons or not, because the whole point is that the nation struck is left vulnerable to further nuclear attack.
The U.S. has been working on CPGS (Conventional Prompt Global Strike) for years.
https://fas.org/sgp/crs/nuke/R41464.pdf
However, such a system could also deliver EMP nukes. Ballistic missiles easily delver such high-altitude area-effect weapons. It only takes one to black out most of Russia’s modern electrical and electronic infrastructure.
The Russians aren’t dumb. Trump is on the way out, and the Democrats and their hare-brained Russiagate policies are about to become official government policy.
An EMP nuke would be tough for Russia to retaliate in kind with, as Canada and Mexico are in the area-effect zone of any such strike on the continental U.S.. Not that Russia would mind EMP-ing Trudeau’s Canada, really.
“Democrats and their hare-brained Russiagate policies are about to become official government policy.”
Yes, but once they’ve got power, Democrats will no longer have any use for or need of the lies they are selling about Russia. It is possible that will be the end of it, just as the “Missile Gap” disappeared once JFK took over and no longer had a use for it.
Cynical is actually hopeful, in this case.
The sheer irrationality of Democratic Russophobia is about to become official foreign policy of the United States…
When Obama left, armed clashes with Russian troops in the Ukraine were not out of the question.
In Syria, the faux progressives openly brag about tricking Trump into keeping troops there. The reality was probably closer to a soft mutiny, giving Trump the fig leaf of ‘taking the oil’..
https://www.cnn.com/videos/politics/2020/08/10/trump-foreign-policy-syria-jim-sciutto-lead-vpx.cnn
There’s not much to be hopeful about except for kinetic foreign policy hawks.
“When Obama left, armed clashes with Russian troops in the Ukraine were not out of the question.”
And after Obama left, armed clashes with Russian troops in Syria actually happened:
Pompeo: US Killed ‘300 Russians’ in Syria
Mercs don’t count.
That’s the whole point of using mercs, whether called ‘contractors’ or ‘popular militias’, they are not official government troops so don’t have to be held to account or accounted for.
Well, make up your mind, then. The “mercs” in Syria were closer to being “Russian troops” than were the separatists in the former eastern Ukraine.
Surely you read the reports that off-duty Russian soldiers were ‘vacationing’ in Ukraine, The separatists were far from abandoned by Russia.
Besides, no-one would believe you don’t understand the difference between official soldiers and mercs.
If you wanted to catch me, just point to the U.S.-Russian confrontations in Syria, that could have easily turned into shooting confrontations under Trump.
I’m not interested in “catching” you. I just thought it was risible that you considered Trump superior to Obama because Obama got into a situation where he might have killed Russian troops, when Trump DID kill Russian troops.
The difference between “official soldiers” and mercenaries is, in most cases, no different than the difference between an employee of the city government who turns a wrench and an employee of a contractor for the city government who turns the same wrench. Russian soldiers working for Putin via Wagner are Russian soldiers, just like a guy who knocks down $25k per year in the US Army then goes and does the same job for the same bosses for $80k at Xe is an American soldier.
A mercenary is not a soldier representing any government and people in an official capacity. That’s a big deal; a merc taken prisoner is just a civilian criminal under international law.
Legally, the sponsoring government is usually at a comfortable arms length from any legal or political responsibility for mercenary actions and mercenaries have few if any legal protections under international law.
So, Putin’s Wagner mercs are only a problem because mercs are (were?) illegal under Russian law.
The scientists and engineers of what is today the NOAA, for example, were organized as commissioned officers in 1917. This was to ensure, their work often being indistinguishable from scouting, that if they were ever captured by an enemy force, they couldn’t just be executed as spies (or mercenaries) but enjoy the full protection of the laws of war.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NOAA_Commissioned_Officer_Corps
So again, mercs don’t count. Its always been understood mercs are below official culpability and killable. When someone talks of American troops or Russian troops, they invariably intend to mean official soldiers of that nation, not contractors or PMU’s.
That’s not to say a contractor probably can’t enjoy some official status, if its written into the contract. American civilians working as non-combat support personnel at hot U.S. bases may have such protection.
Assad sent popular militias into Afrin in a last ditch effort to stop the Turkish invasion, but was not on the hook for aggression or to retaliate when Turkey shelled them. Similarly, the Russian-led Syrian mercenary push into Dier ez-Zor was slaughtered. PMUs would be expected to fight other PMUs, but not necessarily official troops.
6th mass extinction, 416 ppm(hawaii 2/20)yawn,global pandemic amok,and whats a good thing to do? Tweak the nuke button?
Then you would enjoy the book, “The End of Everything”.
ah, yes, every generation has to look for that dead end,not just for us,but for the whole enchilada. No, i do not. Its irrelevant.
This is what you get for the liberal Russia hoax. Mueller was worshiped by US media, while he smeared Assange as a Putin asset. Liberal TDS caused Dems to start a new cold war with Russia in a desperate attempt to attack Trump — simply because he beat Hillary Clinton, who Russia bribed for uranium!
Fake news that only liberals are stupid enough to believe:
“FDR, himself, was a genteel aristocrat, but battered as a Russian agent – one Chicago Tribune cartoon showed his hands covered with the red jam of Moscow.”
– Matt Taibbi, Rolling Stone
Dont ferget the clinton pedophile ring downstairs at the pizza parlor ! ………….. :?[
thank goodness they broke that up and all the perps are in jail
Wasn’t easy cause the clintons filled the basement with native soil, compacted it, and poured a slab aged to look like it had always been there. They were tricky that way.
Not true. ALL PERPETRATORS are walking free, respectable citizens, politicians, businessman. All that was done is put one such operation out of business, and front exposed. What about the CLIENTS? This whole operation has not been set up for a few guests. Where are the victims? Anybody offered them protection. It is easy to pick in a royal — try that with some powerful at home!
This blindness to the whole implication — the victims being unprotected and dare not come forward. I guess woke crowd can pretend not to see when too dangerous!
(sigh) There IS no Clinton pedophile ring hidden in a pizza parlour basement.
The rest of us were joking (that thing people with a sense of humor do now and again? Yeah? No?). Helps to read threads from the OP down, not jump in in the middle. Context. Information. Background.
Bianca, much as I don’t like saying it (again) you really are the stupidest person in a country filled with stupid people, which, to paraphrase The Big Lebowski, puts you in the running for stupidest worldwide. Not because you make mistakes (we all do) but because you don’t learn from them. You and A.T. Brockland. (One American dying every minute of Covid19 right now, still says it’s “a bust” whatever TF that means. He then went on to say Canada had “no excuse” for its performance (eye roll). Oh, he says, but the numbers are being inflated, way, way up. It’s only one every ten minutes. An hour! A day! Why, that’s only the death rate of Americans killed in Iraq at the start of 2003. Who cares?)
(sigh) There IS no Clinton pedophile ring hidden in a pizza parlour basement.
The rest of us were joking (that thing people with a sense of humor do now and again? Yeah? No?). Helps to read threads from the OP down, not jump in in the middle. Context. Information. Background.
Bianca, much as I don’t like saying it (again) you really are the stupidest person in a country filled with stupid people, which, to paraphrase The Big Lebowski, puts you in the running for stupidest worldwide. Not because you make mistakes (we all do) but because you don’t learn from them. You and A.T. Brockland. (One American dying every minute of Covid19 right now, still says it’s “a bust” whatever TF that means. He then went on to say Canada had “no excuse” for its performance (eye roll). Oh, he says, but the numbers are being inflated, way, way up. It’s only one every ten minutes. An hour! A day! Why, that’s only the death rate of Americans killed in Iraq at the start of 2003. Who cares?)
And you have just identified yourself as a person not to be taken seriously.
In reply to my post, in addition to gratuitous insults to myself and others — you chose NOT TO BOTHER TO COMMENT ON ANYTHING I SAID! This is against rules of this forum.
Instead, you talk about Clinton, pizza, COVID, Canada, Iraq, and whatever your point is — I lost it.
As you have not bothered to comment on my post, I will REPEAT it to you and others that are blinded by party politics.
Epstein and Maxwell ran an operation for years that involved grooming of underage girls (plural) for sex. Epstein ran his Fantasy Island operation to entertain rich and powerful. So far, only one individual has been identified (not charged) by his accuser —Prince Andrew.
If the prosecutors do not offer witness protection to ALL the victims of this operation — the entire process will end up in cover up.
There were many more guests willingly lured into the trap of consorting with underage girls. These are the prime targets for potential blackmail and extortion.
It is high time our judicial system demonstrates its independence. Its independence has been tested lately — and we should be worried.
We must remember — this is not about Epstein’s money. It is about underage victims used in a schema to lure arrogant people of power into incriminating situations. It is quite possible they were never told the girls’ age.
This goes beyond money, compensation or salacious story.
Our national security may be at stake.
“you chose NOT TO BOTHER TO COMMENT ON ANYTHING I SAID! This is against rules of this forum.”
No, it’s not.
The only rule I’ve noticed come up was pretty much no slurs. Is there a list?
Here are the draft guidelines (I don’t know why they’ve remained in draft for two years; they were composed after several years of me agitating for a set of rules instead of just my judgment on the spot, and they’re what I go by):
Stuff Up With Which We Will Not Put:
SPAM — Our comment spaces are reserved for reader discussion of Antiwar.com’s articles and the issues they relate to. This is not the place to advertise penis enlargement pills, work from home opportunities, essay writing services, etc. That does NOT mean you can’t link to a relevant/topical book, video, article, etc., but not repetitively and not if the primary purpose of your commenting is to sell stuff.
HATE SPEECH — You’re entitled to your opinion. You’re not entitled to use Antiwar.com’s facilities to publish slurs or supremacist claims based on race, ethnicity, nationality, religion, disability, sex, sexual orientation or gender identity, or to link to sites promoting such material. We don’t want that stuff here.
ILLEGAL/ILLICIT MATERIAL — We do not tolerate posting of threats of violence against people or groups; plagiarism, i.e unattributed or falsely self-attributed lengthy postings of material created by other people; or pornographic material no matter the format.
ATTACKS ON ANTIWAR.COM ITSELF — Attempts to hack or otherwise technically damage the site are obviously forbidden, as are non-technical attempts to damage our ability to operate (including our ability to raise funds) and personal abuse of Antiwar.com’s writers and staff. If you don’t want to support Antiwar.com, don’t support Antiwar.com. If you want to ask others to not support Antiwar.com, ask them somewhere else. Our willingness to host reader discussions is not a suicide pact.
Sounds about right. Maybe your libertarian heart couldn’t quite bring itself to put down rules in writing, much as they were needed. 🙂
I begged for the rules to be put down in writing for years, and participated in putting them down in writing. And once they were put down in writing, I started begging for them to be publicly posted. Not sure what the hold-up is on that, as what I showed you is a draft that hasn’t changed in two years.
(double sigh) You’re the one who is actually off topic. I’ll try to explain it once more so that your child mind understands. The OP of this particular sub thread is Dave Sullivan. He said: “Dont ferget the clinton pedophile ring downstairs at the pizza parlor ! ………….. :?[” He’s still referring to that below, in his response to me–the one you went nutso with. That is what every other person on this sub-thread is responding to except YOU. I cannot respect someone who cannot be bothered to read and digest a short sentence, much less the previous comments of which it is a part. Excuse me for my lack of patience but you do this a lot. Maybe it’s an ESL thing, in which case, it’s still on you to make sure you understand things before commenting on them. If you were my student you’d have got an F for this one.
If I thought you were a troll, I’d be impressed. But as you appear to be sincere, you come across as genuinely stupid–or at any rate impetuous to the point of bloody foolishness which is about the same thing in most people’s minds if not in reality. I get nuance–you don’t. Maybe you are not stupid. If you can demonstrate that you understand the error everyone else can see you made, put on your big girl pants and own it and move on and learn from it so you stop charging into the middle of comment threads without understanding them, then you’ll be worthy of everyone’s respect, instead of their derision or silence.
Can you do that, or are you going to skip everything I just wrote and make up another rule I am not breaking? Do you have enough of a rational mind to overcome your fight-or-flight response in any given situation? Please try.
P.S.
You may well ask why I even bothered to respond to you–twice. It’s the educator in me, I’m not saying I’m a particularly good one, I lose my temper and say un-nice things but at least I give a damn. Sometimes you have to be an asshole to challenge people and get them to think. You have energy and passion but you need to slow down. Take the time to read, make sure you understand, and then see if it’s worth your time to add something. In this case, you misread and overreacted, making yourself look stupid. Got to take the shame to play the game and learn to play it better.
I guess gratuitous insults are completely OK — especially when you are WRONG.
It is not hard to count — after Dave Sullivan’s comment, there were three comments related to EPSTEIN. Epstein, Clinton — Epstein-Trump. You were fourth — stating that “all perps are in jail”.
I disagreed with you. Explained why. This is not Clinton nor Trump issue, but an issue of exploitation of minors by rich and powerful, with a whiff of arrogance endangering potentially our national security. I do not expect you to agree.
But I have EVERY RIGHT to comment on the topic raised by THREE out of FOUR comments in the thread.
But there is something very foreign in the way you insist on degrading someone to prove your intellectual superiority.
You do not intimidate me. Your insults are silly. Going on from here, you can only swallow your pride and apologize.
But you replied to ME, and I was replying directly to Dave Sullivan. That’s why my comment is an outdent. You are wrong. Again. I am not denying your right to do anything. I’m saying that you are careless when you read, that you reply to something without knowing what you’re commenting about.And you have proved me right. Again. I was clearly answering Dave directly and I was being sarcastic.
Even now, after several days of you presumably mulling over what to say so that you can prove how right you are, you fuck it up again. Making the same mistake over and over again is someone’s definition of insanity. For me it’s stupidity. Six and a half dozen of the other. If you really believe me to so immoral and horrible why are you bothering to engage with me? Don’t you know you’re not supposed to feed trolls, if that’s what you think I am? Or did you think I was just going to roll over and congratulate you on your “Aha”. Well, sorry. Anyone capable of reading knows better. Unfortunately, as of this moment, that’s not you.
By the way, you were also wrong about me not addressing your comments being a rule I’d broken, as Thomas indicated below.
“But there is something very foreign in the way you insist on degrading someone to prove your intellectual superiority.” Foreign? FOREIGN? What the honest to goodness fuckity fuck fuck is that supposed to mean? I’ve often suspected you are not a native speaker of English. You seem to be translating a word from a language where “strange” and “foreign” are the same word, like French, and if I remember right, German. Unless you mean that literally in which case you are a xenophobe. But giving you the benefit of the dobut, no, I don’t need to demonstrate any superiority to you, intellectual or otherwise. I don’t believe in any form of general or global superiority. It goes against everything we know about natural selection for one thing: variety and cooperation is the key to human survival, not some elite or even meritocracy lording it over everyone else.
You can choose not to believe me, and speculate as much as you like about my motives, it doesn’t change the fact that you refuse to address your own problems and are now obsessed with discovering mine, such as they may be. You can’t help me if I’m broken or if I’m whole; but you can help yourself. Whether you choose to do so or not is up to you, and not my problem. I’ve pointed out your error. That you refuse to acknowledge it is a matter of your wounded pride, not mine; it has blinded you to it. Either way, keep digging if you like, see where it gets you.
I will say this. I’m not particularly proud of my outbursts. They’re actually fewer than they used to be! I’m well aware that the truth value of my statement is inevitably lost in the emotional response ellicited, and that’s on me. So if you want me to apologize for getting angry and hurling hurtful words, I’ll do it. But for that to happen you need to meet me half way and recognize the mistake you made. Or don’t. I really don’t care. I’m not trying to “intimidate” you, I have nothing to gain from it. I do have something to gain if you would only learn from your mistake and stop commenting without seeing the whole context so you actually know what you’re talking about. You don’t have to take my word for it, if you don’t believe me. You could take a poll or something. Bear in mind that most others here may consider this too trivial a matter to comment on though. Most other people wouldn’t bother answering you this time, but here we are.
Epstein and Clinton were best of buddies, and probably shared a lot more than just pizzas.
Was that before or after Epstein and Trump were best buddies?
Under Obama’s watch, Epstein was let go.
Under Trump’s watch, Epstein was stopped for good.
Its possible Epstein made eyes on Ivanka and Trump never forgot that.
deleted.
“And the record thus far clearly shows that the Trump administration, working with Republicans in Congress, has been far tougher on Russia than the Obama administration ever was.”
This is from a republican. Not sure if he’s related to commentator Dave. And why hasn’t Trump demanded Assange’s release? Or backed Chelsea Manning for that matter? Wasn’t she the one who exposed some of our atrocities in the war that Trump was so against(after he was for it)? Instead he pardons a war criminal and praises him as a hero. I do know he spoke up for Snowden, suggesting he should be executed.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/trump-has-not-been-soft-on-russia-hes-been-tougher-than-obama/2019/03/28/08e88a04-5194-11e9-88a1-ed346f0ec94f_story.html
Yeah I still don’t get how anyone sees Trump as a “man of peace” after the MOAB, and the gratituitous murder of a dozen Iraqi officials in the process of illegally assassinating a peace envoy from Iran, one of their most beloved public figures–and a hero to “our” side as well in that he fought ISIS for us–and then refused to leave Iraq now that the US had just shown what its friendly benign presence really cost. Oh, and the failed coup in Venezuela that was all American but nothing to do at all with the government despite nearly two decades of attempts at regime change there by the US.
Then the “man of a few of the better off people” blithely shoved aside peaceful protestors with armed goons so he could walk up to a church where he was asked not to go, hold up “a Bible” upside down to show what a brave upstanding Christian he is in the face of people protesting something that had nothing to do with anyone’s religion. I honestly don’t know what it’s going to take for those hardcore supporters. Maybe actually shooting someone on Fifth Avenue like he said he could.
But hey he’s all about your freedom to look cool and not wear a mask, until he wasn’t. Kellyanne Conway just the other day said his medical team should listen to HIM, in possibly the most sickening display of sycophancy we may ever see this century. I think the word “quisling” will have to give way to “conway” or “kellyanne”.
Excellent point. For that matter, why weren’t any of the Democrat candidates willing to bring up Snowden or Assange in the debates or in their campaigns?
Fact is, both “sides” care little for the truth and are unwilling to take a stand for those such as Snowden and Assange. Both of those are true heros and have given everything to tell the truth.
But not Manning? Or was that an oversight? And I agree about the democrats.
Sambor said “such as”. It’s not a comprehensive list. I’m sure Manning et al. (and plenty more) are understood. And yes, of course, from HRC on down, whistleblowers and publishers (Assange) are targetted by both parties at least when it comes to foreign relations and domestic spying, etc. I’ll say this, though, at least Obama commuted Manning’s sentence (I forget if it was a pardon, I think it was). We have to take what few wins there are regardless of party affiliation.
He used those two names twice and left out Manning in both. And Obama commuted Chelsea’s sentence. No pardon. Pardons are left for Navy SEALS that kill naked prisoners of war allegedly reaching for rocks. You know, Trump’s kind of guy.
Correct to point out my omission. I had been reading about the exile of Snowden and the torture of Assange. I guess I sorta got stuck there. Indeed Manning, refusing to roll over on Assange and the consequences to her, places her in the true hero range.
Good to hear man.
Trump would obviously not have survived any one let alone all of the Russiagates, had he not a record of being tough on Russia. However, Trump is openly and legally tough with the Eurasians.
Meanwhile, the Ukraine stalemate remains cool, the Syrian stalemate warm, but not hot, and Russian officials and military bands are not mysteriously (or not so mysteriously, as was the case with the Russian ambassador to Turkey) dying.
https://www.usatoday.com/pages/interactives/suspicious-russian-deaths-sacrificial-pawns-or-coincidence/
Putin was openly being blamed for those Russian deaths, by the late Obama administration, even those that could not possibly have benefited him. So many Russian deaths, suggests a campaign of discreet assassinations.
The Soleimani assassination was done openly, albeit a betrayal of diplomatic norms.
Political capital is wasted on pardons that mean nothing when more spurious charges can be brought up anew against Snowden, Manning, or Assange.
A test case for any pardons or like actions appears to be getting charges dropped for Lt. General Michael Flynn. Its still not clear if this is going to work out. Flynn’s only errors appears to have been opposing the JCPOA and supporting Trump; he’s otherwise a bona-fide Iran hawk and War Machine top cog.
Meaning — once Democrats take a
wheel of the government, we will get Obama-like smooth running of empire, with focused wars that are meant not to be won, but last forever. Allies grumble, adversaries groan — but they keep on buying US debt. And slowly but surely in one hundred years, we will have globe become an image of Lebanon. Not blaming the open choking of their finances or US years of Iraqi – Syria chaos for tsunami of refugees. No, no — they are hoping for France to colonize them again!
Yeah, but some people apparently like that dystopia because… its a ‘progressive’ dystopia I guess.
No one has exposed the ugliness and futility of U.S. entitlement to exceptionalism better than Trump, and the need for ending the forever wars for real – and some people just can’t stand that.
Like Assad said, Trump is the best U.S. President.
There just isn’t that psycho sentimental nihilism that all the mindless killing and destruction is somehow for a greater good, whether shedding tears of joy in support, or crocodile tears in opposition.
The forever wars are just evil manifested. Trump tried to end them, and started no new ones.
Let us hope it remains so. Lame ducks and second term presidents are pushed into wars, as they are no longer in the position to manage the political future. They can start wars — and the new candidate is free to pay politics. But war goes on and on. Hilary did not care for Obama’s prospects when she orchestrated Libya war. Or when the initial NGO inspired protests in Egypt snowballed out of control snd shook up the entire region.
It would not shock me if Pompeo pushes for war. He kind of reminds me of Hilary.
There’s no-one Trump can really attack, nor anyone willing to attack the U.S… Oddly enough, the world is sort-of at peace under Trump.
He wants and has retained good relations with Russia. China is in the doghouse, but Trump has refrained from getting personal with Xi and the Chinese have issued a directive not to shoot first. North Korea is being ignored, not provoked.
The Democrats passed a resolution against war with Iran; why everyone thinks Trump would put his head in a war crimes impeachment noose attacking Iran, is unclear, since he seems more than happy to let Iran suffer trade war. Venezuela is just too bit to occupy. Iraq is more or less beaten.
The only wars are the pre-existing wars, and they are in warm, not hot, stalemate.
I did the same review. Came with same conclusion. Even a limited military operation does not look in the cards. Everyone in the world would like to stay out of the way — until US powers to be duke it out in election.
But does it look like whoever wins — will not enjoy the smooth assumption of power. This is almost given. With divided population, how to unite everyone behind White House? Especially now in conditions of unending plague, and unemployment that may remain chronically high. Many businesses have shut down for good. But still — no good candidates for war glory. It must be something big — not an annoying thing in Balkans, or another flare-up in Syria.
Is Lebanon a candidate? It is a chance to give the country to Israel on the silver platter? But it will not have a big enemy patriotic impact.
Is the noise coming from Baltic states and Poland towards Belarus a provocation of Russia? This would be perfect — take some small very willing proxies, assured of US support — and it can quickly escalate into dangerous fracas in Russian borders. And anti-Russia angle has been worked on for a while —and will be tempting to leverage it.
There will be no unity. Harris is a gun grabber and police statist. The outcome of the social media civil war is a good model of what is to come.
Conservatism and anything remotely genuinely right-ish will come under the government gun big time for removal as a political force.
What’s left of real progressivism will also be done away with as well.
Trump pre-empted a lot of trouble by simply preventing the migrant caravans. Mass illegal migrants, race riots, and COVID-19 would have been a disastrous mix.
The next war will probably be somewhere in Africa, likely Libyan unfinished business. Africa is critical to the EU.
“Trump would obviously not have survived any one let alone all of the Russiagates, had he not a record of being tough on Russia.”
I see. Just surviving. During his second term he will change course.
“Political capital is wasted on pardons that mean nothing when more spurious charges can be brought up anew against Snowden, Manning, or Assange.”
Sure, otherwise Trump would have been full throated behind all three. Well maybe not Snowden since executing him is what Trump suggested should be his fate.
After Trump said that, I’m sure Snowden harbours no illusions now about ever coming back.
Which is completely realistic. The War Party has no use for any of them except as examples.
Trump isn’t likely to get a second term, but your antipathy towards someone who sells war and American exceptionalist abuses so poorly is as bizarre as expecting things can’t get any worse under Biden.
deleted.
only 2 backward peoples legalize peasant witch hunts. —grand juries—USA, Liberia
Holly forking shirt. But at least these Russians know how a deterrent works, unlike the ones in Dr. Strangelove.
Lol..”Why didn’t you tell anyone ?”…”We were going to announce it on the premier’s birthday “
EMP nukes, must be what Russia fears. EMP nukes are the ‘safest’ way to fight a ‘limited’ nuclear war. It only takes one or two blasts to take down an entire continent. Retaliation in kind is tricky; the area-effect knows no borders and by default is quite large.
Russia is simply stating, nuclear war is nuclear war, and will brook no equivocation. They’ve seen how meaningless even the U.S. Presidency is to the Deep State war machine, and are taking no chances.
Although there has been talk of hardening the electrical grid, and to some extent the electronic ecosystem, in preparation for a Carrington Event, doing so is by default a provocative act. Such preparations are expensive and indistinguishible from plotting an EMP first strike.
A Carrington Event is the sunspot-derived solar storm juicing of the electrons in the environment such that all unsheilded, exposed electrical and electronic equipment is overloaded and destroyed.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_storm_of_1859
Although mass EMP effects are disputed as unproven conjecture, EMP arguments are very well informed conjecture well beyond speculation that only fall short of hypothesis by being ethically untestable.
Worst case scenario, civilization in an EMP-nuked region collapses upon the weight of its own populations deprived not only of electricity and smartphones, but every modern system of communications, water and food distribution dependent on electricity and electronics.
The U.S. has been working on conventional prompt global strike (CPGS) capability for some time, but Russia has never drawn a red line till now.
less than 90 seconds to midnight now
The Kremlin warning is another sign of the deteriorating relationship between Russia and the West. But the pressure of another world war has been growing since 1991.
https://www.ghostsofhistory.wordpress.com/
Bully’s are a pain in the ass. I don’t blame them. Ok DC, you have been warned.
Somehow I do not think there will be ever a full exchange. Historically, in all wars thus far, the wealth aristocracy always managed to find a shelter, to emerge eventually and restart the process of “credits” — a “free” money to ruling elite — followed by the squeeze of population. Eventually, another war followed and another redistribution of cards.
I do not believe that wealth aristocracy are the sacrificing types — for any cause.
They are the most likely to have a say over major decisions.
Complete destruction is not in the cards. They will — if confronted with possible harm to themselves — chose option that is good for them. These are NOT the people to care about their country, but their survival. So, what would be the likely response to such be-or-not-to-be situations? Very likely —confronted with the possibility of perishing, they will not opt for extreme gamble, but for a compromise.
This global wealth aristocracy is probably keeping the world out of major war. Yet, they have to poke around, see if there is a soft spot anywhere around the globe, for a safe plunder.
And see if threatening others would result in concessions. They actually believe in their superiority, and are hoping population of enemy countries like China or Russia dread the idea of being excommunicated from the “West”, that they will rise up against their governments. So, keep on poking.
But should a provocation go too far, or provocation results in a meaningful, damaging response — they will opt for peace.
Looking at the provocative assassinations in Iraq — Iran’s retaliation was accepted meekly. Why? Too much risk for wealth aristocracy. Risking war with Iran was not contemplated.
Will be different in South China Sea. A lots of threats and provocations. Clearly, these elites do not bother to learn, as in China saving face is the key in conflict allowing weaker party to offer concessions without being humiliated. We are hell bent on insulting China. A provocation can result in a conflict.
China knows that wealth aristocracy is only interested in Chinese concessions— and quickly seek normalcy. But this is also telling China that in such situation they must go for maximum damage.
The fear of going further would force the elite to think. And even if they choose a measured escalation — and a more damaging response comes — the escalation would stop.
Main reason for such behavior is the fact that we control the provocation. Thus we can calibrate the response. But if the other party is not biting — provocations get more robust.
At some point response chosen will be very meaningful, in fact so meaningful that the question of escalation raises existential questions. It should so, already. But the extreme nature of poking and probing — prevents from seeing the potential for us suffering a damage, without proceeding towards global nuclear response. They will not go there.
The enemy is not powerless, and even has some asymmetrical advantages. How far to proceed?
there can be now war with civilized peoples like Russia or china…the US ruling class will not risk their bank accounts in the Cayman Is and retreat to their underground bunkers in NZ