We watch as the great powers of the world, the U.S. and NATO on the one hand and Russia and China on the other head for a massive confrontation in Eastern Europe, with Ukraine at the epicenter. This volatile situation has been brought on because the two sides in this struggle for power espouse political ideologies and objectives that are diametrically opposed and seemingly cannot co-exist.
We might say that Ukraine is the eye of this "gathering storm" or, more accurately, it's the point at which a small spark could ignite a military firestorm. If NATO continues to aggressively attempt to recruit Ukraine into its organization then that could easily happen. And if anyone thinks Putin will back down and yield to the power of U.S./NATO then they better think again because he will not.
Putin knows that if he stands aside and lets Ukraine become a part of NATO he will have opened the door to the eventual encirclement of Russia; and that is something that would eventually bring his country to its knees. That's why he has drawn a red line around Ukraine. So if the U.S./NATO continues to ignore his warnings and make a bold encroachment into that territory then they are truly playing with fire.
The question is: why are the U.S. and NATO so hell bent on this highly dangerous objective? Why do they continue their overly aggressive agenda and try to push their way into Russia's sphere of influence when there is no truly justifiable reason for doing so? Don't they realize the gravity of this situation? This is like an irresistible force meeting an immovable object.
To try to fully understand what is going on between these two powers is very difficult. So as we try to assess this increasingly tenuous situation here is what we might find:
With the U.S. this form of military hubris is nothing new, it's all about control of natural resources, primarily oil, as well as protecting its other "national interests." The majority of Americans continue to buy into the old, worn out reasoning that the U.S. military is so active around the world because it's all about providing for their safety and security. and while that is certainly true to a considerable degree it is also heavily geared toward protecting the interests of the Corporate America, and especially those interests of its petroleum corporations.
The EU nations' participation in NATO is very complicated and somewhat conflicted. It's not news that most EURO nations bend to the dictates of the U.S. government. They are currently being pressured to play an active role in this planned encirclement of Russia. So these nations are between a rock and a hard place. They can't afford to go against the dictates of the U.S. but, at the same time, they can't be reckless and put at risk their great dependency on imports of natural gas, currently 30% and growing, from Russia. Secondly, in addition to gas these nations, collectively, also import 15% of their crude oil from Russia and another 8% from Iran, Russia's close ally.
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