As accusations and hysteria prompted by old habits and grudges now take center stage, hopeful and constructive dialogue have become drown out by the drums of war.
War fever and sabotage of peace initiatives __ mostly emanating from Washington DC __ are becoming pandemic.
The escalation of paranoia and preparation for major conflict keeps ratcheting up and up.
Trying to stop this madness is like trying to stop an avalanche with a pair of wool mittens.
We are way beyond the finger-pointing and blame-game phase. Now it's tit-for-tat as both sides ramp up their respective militaries, each new step bringing the situation closer to spinning completely out of control.
The Pentagon pushes for a military build-up along Russia's border. The world gets to hear General Frederick Hodges explain his no-mercy policy and lecture Europe and NATO about preparedness. Friction develops and Russia objects as NATO continues a massive military build-up of troops in the Baltic States and other Eastern Europe NATO countries. There are U.S. paratroopers headed for Ukraine to train their army. Ukraine President, Petro Poroshenko, claims to have struck a deal will eleven EU countries to provide military weapons, including lethal ones. Great Britain deploys 30 Royal Air Force planes
for Rising Panther, its largest war aerial exercises in a decade, in
response to the Russian threat. U.S. tanks, Humvees, and armored
personnel carriers roll through Latvia. We have JOINT WARRIOR, a huge deployment of naval ships out of Scotland, for war game exercises. Poland is purchasing the Patriot ABM system to defend against the anticipated Russian invasion. Even the U.S. National Guard has sent twelve F-15 interceptor jets to Europe guarding against Russia.
None of this has escaped Russia's attention, so understandably they have responded with their own build-up and heightened alert status. They conducted huge r apid deployment drills in Kaliningrad, and have deployed a new missile defense radar system there which will cover the entire Atlantic. Russia is sending advanced supersonic strategic bombers to Crimea for global training exercises, as well as re-equipping early warning radar sites in the recently annexed territory. They have also announced the launch of a new advanced missile-attack warning satellite. There have been reports of an escalating presence of Russian strategic bombers near U.S. airspace, and concern expressed by NATO at the apparently growing number of "incidents" involving Russian planes and seagoing vessels, with of course no mention of the provocations emanating from NATO itself and its allies. Recognizing that Russia will stand toe-to-toe with the West in the face of aggression by NATO, U.S. troops at the front now feel "vulnerable" and want bigger, better weapons.
Through all of this, a stream of propaganda, outright condemnation, shoddy fabrication, angry provocation, and malicious innuendo continued to spew from President Obama, Vice-President Biden, Secretary of State Kerry, and U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, Samantha Power, aided and abetted naturally by the main stream media.
Then yesterday, as I was finishing this article, Geoffrey Pyatt, a man with a long sleazy record of diplomatic disservice, who is currently U.S. Ambassador to the Ukraine, was reported to have tweeted an image of Russian air defense systems, claiming they were there in the country, when in fact the photo was actually taken outside of Moscow two years ago at an International Aviation and Space Show. Mr. Pyatt has thus expanded the range of his incompetence to even being pathetic at lying __ making him more dangerous.
So we now have the perfect storm: hubris, idiocy, and paranoia.
The military one upsmanship coupled with diplomatic dysfunction is sheer madness.
I keep listening for a voice of sanity, appeals for restraint, some thoughtful analysis __ occasionally there have been a few faint whispers __ but mostly I'm hearing adolescent boys shouting at one another, as they rev up for a serious scrap in the schoolyard.
At the same time, as with most fights someone had to start it. Usually that gives us some clue who needs to stop it.
No matter what spin you put on everything I've laid out in this article, no matter how you rationalize it, hide it behind the thin vapor of noble intentions, without any equivocation, doubt, or splitting of hairs, it is the U.S. that has been provoking and perpetuating this extremely dangerous and counter-productive confrontation.
It's not even in America's long term interests to keep this war of nerves going.
Russia is not Zimbabwe, Iraq, or Yemen. It's not Grenada or Haiti.
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