actually -- as of TODAY -- Russia just entered the panama canal........and by friday -- supposedly -- her nuclear powered battle cruiser , to rendezvous with counterparts in south america that they recently announced is to DOCK in a FORMER US NAVAL BASE which was the center of US power facing south .

that naval base was confiscated BY Panama a few years ago from the USA - after the century long agreement for using the area expired and Panama refused to renew it. they then renamed it "BALBOA" base.... friday - the Russians are supposed to dock there. what would the USA say if the RUssians placed PERMANENT russian vessel presence there, tipped with missiles facing NORTH and SOUTH and saying:

"we are here to protect OUR national interests because we have ECONOMIC TIES with south american countries....and because TERRORISTS might be using the NORTH AMERICAN continent as launching pads to creat chaos in the countries of OUR TRADE PARTNERS like Panama, Cuba, Bolivia, Venezuala"?

and by a clever way -- simply say that "since the USA SAYS that there MUST be terrorists IN the USA -- then we are just being PRUDENT in case THESE terrorists IN the USA manage to get their hands on WMD's and USE them to create WORLD CHAOS by attacking SOUTH AMERICAN ALLIES of OURS...and it is in OUR national interest to be PRESENT HERE". ?

i mean -- what goes for the goose , goes for the gander.

EXACTLY RJW!

what is so tragic is: the americans have such WONDERFUL people in their individualities. such great instincts for generosity that have been TWISTED over the decades towards greed and selfishness prodded by FEAR and paranoia - about "not being number one" ...and from there ALWAYS wanting to , as a consequences, DOMINATE others no matter the cost to thesmelves AND to others.

it was a US general -- i think omar bradley or smedley butler - that revealed at the end of their careers:

"the REAL purpose of the US military is to ENFORCE the will of american businesses and make the world safer for OUR CULTURAL ASSAULT on other countries...our real foreign policy is about GATHERING as MUCH of the world's RESOURCES unto OURSELVES at the expense of other countries.......I was its chief Enforcer".

i've always suspected for years that in the Eurasian continent the REAL prize for the USA SINCE the 19th century - has been RUSSIA -- and we can see why, even as the 1990's demonstrated when USSR collapsed and there was no effective governance in its chaos that was ENCOURAGED by the USA :

Russia is known , always has, to possess the world's greatest deposits of vast energy sources: OIL, GAS, FRESH WATER (it contains the largest concentration of fresh water in the world, as well as running water - rivers) - FISHERY grounds , both fresh and saltwater, Great Forests, unbelievable mineral deposit tracts, and that unbelievable REAL ESTATE, PLUS ringing much of the north pole in geostrategic terms.

that is ENOUGH motivation for a country like the USA to WANT to surround russia - intimidate her , eventually even provoke her to "justify" her as a "threat to world peace" and therefore evne land invasions as had been revealed in some pentago memos in the 1990's that was leaked in the internet years ago that said:

"Russia is now so weakened, her military capability so deteriorated...that is is NOW conceivable to imagine successful LAND INVASIONS".

connect THAT with Madeleine Albright's notorious comment in the 1990's:

"IT is SO UNFAIR THAT ONE COUNTRY HAS ALL THOSE RESOURCES....SOMETHING OUGHT TO BE DONE ABOUT IT"........

say what? miss albright? you are SUGGESTING that because it is SO UNFAIR that russia has such RICH natural resources and vast land wealth that "something ought to be done about it?"

says WHO? YOU? the USA? you have ANY right to even CONTEMPLATE such things because yoU COVET the riches of ANOTHER which YOU don't DESERVE?

Thanks too curmudgeon. I am not even advocating anything of that sort from Russia -- or for that matter any country in the land of another country.

but it is clear as day -- common sense, simple clear thinking -- 750 military installations by the USA throughout the globe is ITSELF proof that not only is it the USA that has practiced what it has for DECADES accused russia or other "enemies or threats" (emerging or not, current or in "good graces" or not) -- of doing or being a "threat" about.

this is like the argument given by a neighborhood bully - who goes into every corner telling everyone to do as he says - making "deals" that not only interfere with THEIR affairs, but does so in order to take from them advantages he then "reserves" for himself : in other words going in places he HAD NO BUSINESS of going to with the intent of HUSTLING others for his own advantage within THEIR own neighborhoods - and THEN arguing that he is only doing things "for their own good" and/or "out of self-defense".

that is like a muscle man in the beach kicking sand on others' faces and then when someone kicks back - he goes into a fight and says -- i have to "defend myself".

as Mahatma Gandhi once said:

"what does it matter that people , old and young, men and women, die and suffer in the name of Socialism or the HOly name of democracy? -- they are still dead".

and when some Time Magazine reporters in the 50's - flush with the "victory" of america in world war 2 - and righteously being acknowledged as the "moral center" of the world FISHED for compliments about "america's greatness" FROM the famous and highly honored indian leader :

"Mister Gandhi -- isn't america great? what do you LIKE about america?"

his answer :

"I do not like your christians....they are so.....Unchristlike".

it really applies to the larger idea of "american exceptionalism".....because if the SUPPOSED principles on which it was founded were "fairness, justice, liberty," and doing away with tyrannies...then america - borne out of THAT idea ITSELF has created for itself a MYTH of its own 'exceptionalism'...which has become the justification for ANYTHING that it wishes to do WITH and IN the world because "it's the american WAY" -- which is to be ACCEPTED as "exceptional" in history.

but it's NOT. it merely practices in MORE successful fashion , larger than any empire bvefore it -- the SAME things as all other conquering nations tried- THINKING that they can go on forever -- and do so by shaping the world "in our image".

Plato once said:

"Governments will always find new enemies or , if there are none, CREATE them , in order that the people might always NEED them".

Socrates once said:

"all foreign wars are waged for Money and Power..they are nothing more than PILLAGE and ROBBERY of the resources of other nations".

now -- question:

WHICH country has its' national interests expressed in a GLOBAL military empire -- and has practiced over 200 hundred military expeditions one way or another in OTHER lands -- FAR beyond its own borders? 99.9 percent of which NEVER resulted in "democracy" or "liberty"? but in fact - the majority of which were waged in order to SUPPORT rightwing dictatorships that are/were "friendly" to AMERICAN BUSINESS CAPITALISM and -- as General Omar bradlye (or maybe smedley butler) said:

:"to make the world SAFE for american business exploitation and our Cultural ASSAULT?"

the irony is -- the USA with its unrivalled power , especially military infrastructure that is so DEEPLY embedded in over 100 countries -- is playing the SAME game that the British empire once did -- right there in central asia...

until ONE Day - even the renownked "poet of Empire" rudyard kipling who glorified England's "supremacy in the globe" - seeing the collapse of the empire , as it was swallowed in the sands and deserts and mountains of central asia quipped , after his own son died there , whom he sent "to honor the queen and empire":

"HERE LIES A MAN WHO TRIED TO HUSTLE THE EAST".

it is ONE thing to dominate because you have "power" and can subjugate and intimidate -- for a while -- and THINK that in the course of that application of the power , you can cover all grounds to , as the NEOCONS love to say since the 1990's:

"ENSURE to PREVENT eh RISE of ANY competing power,....forever" -...it is another to be a power that is RESPECTED and TRUSTED.

without THESE -- you are still NOTHING.

but since the USA today can not EVEN COMPEL emerging nations to do its bidding as it once did -- even as OBAMA promises to "make the US military the most powerful in the world"....

what can an empire REALLY do in the long run if countries , in one way or another are IN NO MOOD to be COMPELLED by the "empire?"

that is already what is happening. but american leaders are STILL living in the 19th century , thinking that technological advances are going to do it.

yet AGAIN -- a soldier that died in iraq said in his last Will to be opened at the time of his death (he was called "peaceful warrior" in an article in Alternet.org website) -

"....even if we could DO all the things we try to do in iraq and other countries..........what does it really mean but that we do whatever we want, whenever we want?"

but the truth is -- america really CAN"T. it can do SOME things, but not ALL things. and the sooner americans realize THAT - the sooner it will be better for everyone.

but first -- they have to discard the SELFMADE MYTHS of "american exceptionalism".

they are no more exceptional than the starving child in a wartorn country like congo or rwanda , nor is their merely 2-hundred plus years of nationhood more exceptional than the thousands of years of continuous civilization of china or russia or the middle east or other places.

that is nothing more than Narcissism. writ national, and then promoted globally so others are forced to look in AWE beyond what america REALLY deserves. it's like a God saying "look at ME -- and be in AWE of me.......or ELSE".........

HONOR and glory should be given BY others, NOT commanded by the one that seeks the glory. and THAT's what's wrong about america.

if there is ONE historical error that americans - leaders, people, and institutions - are mistaken about , it is this, imo:

out of the myth of "american exceptionalism and manifest destiny" that pervades and permeats every nook and cranny of american thinking and cultural mentality comes the instinct towards other cultures and nations to COMPEL them to do america's bidding or ways .

there is a difference between influencing others towards what one thinks is GOOD - through GOOD examples so that others will eventually see it ..and on their own volition, "evolve" towards assimilating something that their EXPERIENCE will will show is beneficial.

it is another to COMPEL them by hook or by crook. which is what the USA has done with the rest of the world -- in the name of "liberty , justice and freedom".......

even if BEHIND it -- is nothing more than "making the world safe for our businesses to exploit, our cultural assault, and gathering as much of its resources unto ourselves at THEIR expense".

by ANY definition especially in moral terms -- what does one call this if not :

UNTRUSTWORTHINESS and THIEVERY? towards the dream and maintainance of "prosperity?"

and if people are STILL wondering if any of these are true...all they have to DO is look at the USa's OWN history and how it "gathered resources unto ourselves" - by denying the native indians their civilization , importing tens of millions of africans and colored people to create the foundation of "industrial and financial wealth"....and CONTINUING it globally in its modern forms of corporatism, militarism, and manipulation of the world currency and trade and exchange structure to become the world's "greatest power".

in short - it is in its DNA. and any other argument that denis this interconnectedness between its history and its present and "intended" or "wished" future as an empire or are the "pre-eminent power" -- as much as the denial of the CONTINUITY of the truth of how it gained wealth and "nationhood" and prosperity to POSITION itself as the global power WITH its present efforts to "fix" the "financial system" or "contain" russia or china or "emerging threats" (which are really seen as parts of "emerging rivals which should NEVER be permitted") -- is only arguing about the PARTS of a WHOLE rather than addressing the CORE which - i think, has been ROTTEN all along despite the facade of prosperity and 'goodness'.

all that was needed was for "threats" to emerge AS A CONSEQUENCE of its own policies to PEEL OFF the facade of "benevolence" --and then we see what is behind it:

the belief in "american exceptionalism" that the world OUGHT To bow down to it..or ELSE.

and THAT is the mark of a TYRANNOUS state.

Poet -- thanks for your comments because they also added some more to my own understanding of things. i mean: i confess they are STILL just my opinion and observations. But your point about Coolidge about "america's business is business" - by itself is not even necessarily undesirable. after all - trading something for another that one wishes for is business.

the problem is letting "business" become such an overriding principle that the sense of FAIRNESS is lost. and that's certainly not how "american business" has been practiced.

this is NOT to say that people who engage in any kind of trade will not try to advantage themselves -- but it is a question of what NATIONAL philosophy is going to be handed down generation to generation as the "natural" order of things, and whether "the business of america is business" ALSO "by nature" means to gather advantage for one's side far MORE than it is warranted according to moral , conscientious principles of TRADING with another side because you both NEED each other ..which is the civilized way.

but there is really something more fundamental, imo, in that in the modern world structure - which we all KNOW is defined according TO the american model - what has gained power over any OTHER "possibility of civilized order" in the world - is FINANCE capitalism REPLACING REAL work and labor that is the true creator of "wealth" -- and taking upon ITSELF the POWER (legalized by government which is of course imposed internationally as a "system" in which all others MUST function -- "markets, stocks, banking, monetary systems, etc")

the power to DICTATE what is the value of a labor and the creation of goods and services BY individual human beings...while removing FROM human beings their NATURAL right to decide how much THEY wish to "charge" someone in exchange for another service or goods.

brought to its apex -- THIS is what Corporatism and Finance Banking IS.

and yet -- when you really analyze history -- these are always the "sides" that are inherently UNPRODUCTIVE human beings...people who do NOTHING but COUNT money and ";value" and "EVALUATE"...while actually contribution NO physical service or material goods or progressive ideas of REAL use for the NEEDS of people.

they are just there to "gather crops" and gather the "value" of crops out of which they play games of 'wealth' that "increases" THEIR VALUE as they become the "masters of the universe" when in reality, even as they tout "capitalism" they are actually , inherently ,(or their position) - is like that of priests --

PARASITES upon the body politic and society while at the same time DICTATING what "values" are -- wealthwise -- and morally.

they are -- to me -- like interlopers in the REAL economy of people who WORK and PRODUCE - and insert themselves as ARBITERS , as "judges" of what's valuable , more or less...and then insert themselves as the "middle man" in the "trade" business. but what do they REALLY have as "capital?"

just -- PAPER printed with "value" out of thin air - which they impose on others, by government fiat and legalization, to ACCEPT as the "evaluation" of what others , in our collective activities of exchange and trade, actually CREATE as real wealth -- and when the SURPLUS of what is created by the many appears -- these "capitalists" then CLAIM it as "capital" and USE IT as an instrument to LOWER the value of actual labor and goods created by the many -- and THAT WAY

make the people fight like animals for a piece of the 'action' -- which is the makebelieve wealth and "capital" (money, bonds, stocks, etc.) -- INTRODUCED by these "finance" masters.

i am of course not refering to 'accountants" who 'count money" in discussing about "unproductive" people who amass great wealth based on the power to USE "capital" they have accumulated FROM the SURPLUS labor of collectives of people In the economy and USING THAT "capital" to dictate value of human beings, their labor and their produce. -- i am not refering to "accountants" in the sense that they are mainly doing a job of counting something "physically" because SOMEONE has to do it -- BUT ONLY because the SYSTEM has been INVENTED that requires it -- BECAUSE the TRULY UNPRODUCTIVE masters dictate this to be.

so -- accountants, in a way, are "employees" also of the CLASS -- the capitalist class - that controls the VALUATION of goods and service through their "money".

but it's not the accountants themselves that are at the root of the problem...it is the INVENTORS of the concept of "money" as the final arbiter of valuation , and for putting in place a system of economics that is DEPENDENT on THIS structure of valuation...which inherently removes from human beings their ability and power to dictate individually what THEY are worth to another human being if they were to "trade" with each other for what they want or need.

i guess -- i am really talking about a far future where - i have no idea how or what -- civilization will simply not need an economic system (which is DISTINCT from "the markets" which is just a SUBcategory of "economy", which is the LARGER activity of any species) such as we are under -and which, clearly, designed to function in a way that devalues people for the sake of "capital".

Furthermore, Poet -- your points about putting resources, money, energy, time, abilities and manpower to USEFUL things that could be SO profitable if that is what people live for - is just plain -- SMART , WISE , PRUDENT and CIVILIZED.

its opposite is BARBARISM with a "modern technological" face bristling with weapons and death and destruction causing untold suffering that is SO UNNECESSARY!!

IMAGINE if such power and resources were focused on alleviating poverty -- NOT by FORCING those that are already suffering to "be with the "free market capitalism" but ACKNOWLEDGE that the free market dictat ITSELF has been endemic to global wars for land and resources (all the way to the original artificial carving up of nations by the european colonialists in africa and middel east for example , which we are still witnessing the "unintended consequences" today such as in Congo, Rwanda, Iraq, Afghanistan, etc.?) .....

where human beings , societies and communities saw their WORTH and that of their natural landscape put to GOOD USE for everyone rather than for the "profit accumulation" of
the "investor and capitalist" class worldwide sitting in their wonderful homes thousands of miles away playing with NUMBERS ?

maybe this is utopian.

but the question is -- what is SO utopian about the promises of global corporatism and capitalism ANYWAY?

if anything -- all its "promises" have turned out to be DYSTOPIAN!!

right to the point that the planet itself is GROANING under the weight of this kind of "wealth accumulation" to the hadns of a few.

WHY should the world be destroyed for THESE few who represent the worst instincts of greed and selfishness?.

Bloody well said. I might even steal that little blurb for my email signature:

Somehow we have got to get beyond an economy based on killing and destruction. There are just as many fortunes to be made providing all the world with fresh potable water, adaquate food to prevent starvation or malnutrition, proper medical care, and universal literacy.
----------------------
Problem is, there are also fortunes to be made by depriving people of potable water, food, medical care and literacy.

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Just a thought: we're not on the brink of disaster. We're already in it. These rapacious pricks in white shirts and ties mouthing mellifluous words in hallowed chambers have now got us thinking all this is normal. As for you Obama, intelligent though you are, you're already starting to disappoint - and its getting noticed.

Unfortunately -- if some remarks by Obama are to be believed - he has already "tuned in" to this same old concept - the mythical "american exceptionalism" that has been used to justify TO americans , first of all, then to the rest of the world, why and in whatever manner the USA should designate ITSELF as the be-all and end-all of civilization.

if people really want to understand and FOLLOW the history as well as the very logical results of this and other US policies, especially the most fundamental one : MONETARY policy - check out Asiatimesonline.com - and read the extremely detailed , exhaustive analyses by HENRY C K LIU .

a recent one explains everything:

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/China_Business/JL05Cb01.html

although it is but one of dozens of encyclopedically precise explanations including on subjects such as "dollar hegemony as the US tool for global imperialism", "the coming trade wars", "the history of Monetary policies",

ALL of them written years ago that accurately predicted exactly what is happening now, inclusive even of LIU's articles years AGO CALLING "chairman greenspan -- the WIzard of Bubble Land" EXACTLY as he has been exposed lately. there people will understand how US imperialism has largely been gotten away with through the manipulation of the world's currency structure to emplace the US dollar as the "trade currency" while allowing the USA to use its INDEBTEDNESS to other countries, ESPECIALLY to emerging and poorer countries, by forcing them -- under this monetary regime - to ONLY trade in US dollars while "investing" their "US DOLLAR EARNINGS" IN the USA at costs to THEM (recycling their earnings in the US) - but at the same time costing the USA NOTHING as those countries , exporting their resources and through cheap labor imposed by the US dollar "hegemony" structure to the USA and first world countries , actually DENY THEMSELVES their own development ....

while FURTHER ensuring that what really amounts to INDEBTEDNESS by the USA to these countries (since the US dollar hegemony PROTECTS the USA from actually having to PAY what it REALLy owes other countries for their resources if the US dollar was NOT imposed as the "world currency") is further actually SUBSIDIZED by those same countries.

in short -- it is what a former CIA operative that worked in south america -- calling himself an "ECONOMIC HITMAN" = confessed in a book:

"we are an empire....the largest and most successful the world has known..and we have gotten away with building this empire through manipulation, assassinations, fomenting insurrections against unfriendly and uncooperative governments, blackmail, torture, covert and overt military expeditions and plain Theft....I was part of that project".

=====================

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/others/Henry.html

this is why -- from your comments....i find it so SAD that the informed americans who SHOW the GENUINE HUMANITY that they possess remain VOICELESS no matter how much they shout to the point of being harassed or declared "unpatriotic"...because the leaders are SO in the pocket of the profiteers and power hungry people with their DELUSIONS of "american grandeur" which THEY are supposedly the great designers and guides of!

but all they are doing is drag the USA and the rest of the world into more bloodshed , anger, resentment, hatred, mistrust and unncessary suffering. these are leaders that the main editor of another website : ANTIWAR.COM , justin raimondo (he considers himself a libertarian or a "true right" conservative) -- calls the people of "BIZARRO WORLD".

from their economic "bailout" plans that are just stopgap measures to try and 'save' a system that is NOT salvageable and UNWORTHY of being saved that is partly at the CORE of the NEED to "expand" everlastingly ("growth" as the current wisdom says all over the world according to that dogma) -- - to the way they call upon the gods of war ...to their lawlessness which they "legalize" and justify with "fighting terror" which THEIR own policies planted since decades ago and which are growing the FRUIT of their "labors", they are BIZARRE people.

ASCowboy -- you are very astute in those comments....seeing RIGHT THROUGH the poorly cloaked facade of "defending europe from iran" nonsense.

the telling history of this is that -- the NEO CONS since over a decade ago have - through the nixon, reagan, bush 1 , clinton, and bush 2 years - being the SAME cabal that includes Cheney, rumsfeld, wolfowitz, Bill Kristol, etc...all connected to AIPAC - had been openly mongering for actual WARS with RUSSIA . these are the people who LUSTED after MORe of the same kinds of provocations such as under carter when ZBigniew (the secretary of state then) declared "WE HAVE JUST GIVEN RUSSIA HER OWN VIETNAM" -- when the cia trained and encouraged what TURNED OUT later on as the TALIBAN and alqaeda (where bin laden was an early participant in those SAME CIA inspired operations) -- and then created the provocations agianst russia from aghanistan -- forcing russia to invade and then get BOGGED DOWN for ten years which accelerated its collapse....EXACTLY as the USA NEO CONS and EMPIRE BUILDERS wanted --

you can even see this PATTERN repeat itself with the invasion of russia into the separatist Georgia provinces of South ossetia and Abkhazia with their large majorities of ethnic russians . GEORGIA - having a president that was Columbia University trained became the darling of the Neocons for their "orange revolution" -- and it has alwasy been clear -- PLANNED to bomb the province of south ossetia - in the middle of the night while the russian president was in the Olympics...and the provocation , greenlighted likely by washington or at least led to by washington's "democracy support" -- became a "cause celebre" for the Western press and governments to say :"SEE? RUSSIA IS A THREAT TO PEACE- she INVADED GEORGIAN TERRITORY"....

EVEN IF since the 1990's when Georgia detached FROM the collapsing soviet union --the provinces of South Ossetia and Abkhazia declared independence FROM GEORGIA and DETACHED THEMSELVES FROM georgia .

so -- who was REALLY trying to KEEP territories from gaining THEIR own independence? the soviet union was NOT - NOR could it insist since it was weakened. but it was GEORGIA that actually was the "new state" that oppressed South Ossetia and Abkhazia!!!

which TWO provinces actually ORIGINALLY DID belong TO russia BEFORE Josef Stalin -- who was GEORGIAN -- became the Soviet Union's dictator and DIVIDED OSSETIA into north and south IN ORDER to enlarge HIS "home state" of georgia!!!

that's the kind of games the USA has been playing "IN RUSSIA's NEIGHBORHOOD" ...even if , as Patrick buchanan, as conservative as you can find a writer , CORRECTLY observed :

":WE DIDN'T LIKE IT WHEN RUSSIA WAS IN OUR NEIGHBORHOOD....SO.........WHAT ARE WE DOING IN RUSSIA'S NEIGHBORHOOD?........WE should get out of this business of EMPIRE in other lands...before they kick us out of there".

that we SEE TODAY are continuing their "project" of "NEVER ALLOWING the RISE of another power to rival the united states".

i mean -- how much more OBVIOUS can it be? that if there is a country whose foreign policies are just EVIL - it IS the USA?

but TO americans in general -- this is "goodness". and THAT is part of the MYTH.

"Iran's advanced al-Shahab III IRBM powered nuclear warheads".
Say what? Iran has nuclear tipped long range missiles? Which tabloid did you get that from, or do you lap up CNN and Fox news and listen to all the RR blowhards?

Iran has no nuclear weapon, it has no weapons grade enriched Uranium, probably doesn't have the know how to make such a weapon and has no missile capable of launching such a weapon. Iran certainly has its problems but name one country that Iran has attacked. Please stop writing inflammatory drivel and go back to your desert bunker.

exactly.

what is not apparent YET is that this system as is proposed is only the BEGINNING of a permanence. this is just the foundation on top of which to build "new systems" - to the effect of "outrunning" russia until it is demonstrably able to "show" that russia becomes TRULY VULNERABLE and UNABLE to DETER ANY intrusion and attack -- let us use the word - ATTACK russia itself .

that is alread surely a scenario the pentagon has been "rehearsing" - and the only thing left is to find the proper "provocative action BY russia" ...AFTER PRIOR PROVOCATIONS DENIED as SUCH by the USA and NATO to entice russia , place IN a position that she MUST respond AND THEN be accused as being "belligerant" and "threatening" and THEREFORE must be "contained" and 'attacked in defense of the West'.

it is an elaborate, many-staged plan of action AGAINST russia, make no mistake about that...and the placing of a "system" is only the PLATFORM upon which to INCREASE many more levels of "systems" to the point of "disabling" russia from actually DEFENDING itself.

Putin and the russians , including their citizens can SEE RIGHT THROUGH IT. their problem is how to counter it effectively since it is already a "race" a "technological" race as well as a propaganda race instigated by USA led NATO.

it is like watching an onion -- how the many peels are placed one on top of the other. this is so obvious...but then -- even the OBVIOUS -- such as the lying by the bushies about WMD in Iraq.etc....torture, secret detentions worldwide, etc...NEVER STOPPED these BIZARRO WORLD folks in washington and their cronies in the death dealing industries from going ahead with their intents..

even if they KNOW they ARE seen by the majority of the world as Liars -- they GO AHEAD ANYWAY and KEEP LYING with a straight face because their hubris is such that it has become SO addictive and they just CAN'T STOP.

it should also be remembered that in the 1990's when the USSR collapsed (we can call it the "russian empire" or a federation of states with a RUSSIAN motif) - the oligarchs were only too happy to "let the outside wolves in" -- namely , british petroleum, France Total, Belgium Gas (where is European Union's CAPITAL located? BRUSSELS , belgium) -- and of course the ExxonMobil, Chevrons, of the USA -- to feed on the carcass of the old Soviet Union.

they were "IN", in other words...free to dismember the Russia of hundreds of years worth of continuity as a sovereignty possessing vast natural resources the other countries and regions - europe, north america, the british isles - could only DREAM OF -- and LUSTED after ...

but PUTIN put a stop to it or a wrench and told them -- BACK OFF and you are going to do business with us on OUR terms or get out.

ENTER NATO and "surrounding" russia , in preparation for a future assault and "land invasion" to "free the people"......

EXCEPT of course that they are talking about a people that is actually VERY AWARE and HAS a LONG MEMORY of centuries of western european and american LUST for Russia's riches .

if people check out the history of how england and the usa connived over just a century ago to "surround" GERMANY and force her with trade and shipping blockades to force her THEN --growing rivalry with england as an economy before the first world war -- and RUN HER to the ground with a recession as a result of the blockades -- people will see that germany really was in the PATH TOWARDS the BIG PRIZE -- Russia!

with RUSSIA -- youare straddling the largest continental land mass in the world...in control of vast riches...embracing from the north both the chinese and southeastern asian regions as well as central asia ...

that's the prize the USA wants. make no mistake about it.

I think it is widely understood as a first-strike installation, and the Russians
know it.

If we put a similar missile "shield" just north of Washington, D.C. (in Canada, say) the U.S. reaction would be to throw a holy tantrum.

It would also be easily expandable into the usual instrument of mass genocide that Americans seem to be addicted to.

One suggestion for U.S. policymakers is to consider leaving the rest of the world alone for awhile so we can try to repair the damage they have already created.
Rogue state and global menace is an understatement.

“Milton Friedman’s misfortune is that his policies have been tried.”
---John Kenneth Galbraith