We restarted the Cold War: The real story about the NATO buildup that the New York Times won’t
We restarted the Cold War: The real story about the NATO buildup that theNew York Times wont tell you
Our leaders and media push time-worn nonsense about American innocence, while taking aggressive moves.
Look out
Patrick L. Smith
Salon Magazine
http://www.salon.com/2015/06/25/we_restarted_the_cold_war_the_real_story_about_the_nato_buildup_that_the_new_york_times_wont_tell_you/
Vladimir Putin, U.S. Secretary of Defense Ashton Carter (Credit: Reuters/RIA Novosti/Jonathan Ernst/Photo montage by Salon)
Have you picked up on the new trope du jour? We are all encouraged to bask in our innocence as we lament the advent of a new Cold War. The thought has been in the wind for more than a year, of course, at least among some of us. But we witness a significant turn, and I hope this same some of us are paying attention.
As of this week, leaders who know nothing about leading, thinkers who do not think and opinion-shaping poseurs such as Tom Friedman are confident enough in their case to sally forth with it: The Cold War returns, the Russians have restarted it and we must do the right thingthe right thing being to bring NATO troops and materiel up to Russias borders, pandering to the paranoia of the former Soviet satellites as if they alone have access to some truth not available to the rest of us.
James Stavridis, the former admiral and NATO commander, quoted in Wednesdays New York Times: I dont think were in the Cold War againyet. I can kind of see it from here.
I can kind of see it, too, Admiral, and cannot be surprised: NATO has missed the Cold War since the Wall came down and the Pentagons creature in Europe commenced a quarter-century of wandering in search of useful enemies. At last, the very best of them is back.
Anything counted: Russias military exercises within its own borders were aggressive. Russian air defense systems on its borders were aggressive. Russias military presence in Kaliningrad, Russian territory lying between Lithuania and Poland, was an aggressive threat.
Full story:
http://www.salon.com/2015/06/25/we_restarted_the_cold_war_the_real_story_about_the_nato_buildup_that_the_new_york_times_wont_tell_you/
stonecutter357
(12,697 posts)newfie11
(8,159 posts)Now we are moving troops into Poland etc!!! I guess the MIC won't be happy until the entire world is smoldering!
Nitram
(22,877 posts)zeemike
(18,998 posts)And want to create it all over again by manufacturing another evil empire.
What folly that is. But their greed knows no bounds.
bemildred
(90,061 posts)You have to remember that guys like Ash Carter, this is about all they know how to do.
But it is vanilla US politics, and it always has been, to pick fights. We are the most successful colonial enterprise in history, and it shows.
MattSh
(3,714 posts)The choice has been made for you.
FlatBaroque
(3,160 posts)It is ti deliver to Russia the same gifts of Democracy that have delivered to many countries in the past, and most recently to Iraq, Syria, Ukraine and Libya. The goal is to detroy the Russian economy, achieve regime change and place a drunk like Yeltsin in power, balkanize the country and steal their resources. It is no more complicated than that.
yurbud
(39,405 posts)anymore than neighbors of Grenada twisted Reagan's arm to get him to invade Grenada.