Russia is unlikely to join the West

Submitted by Michael S (United States), Dec 4, 2015 at 17:46

Hi, Moh. You said,

That is an extremely complex war game. The tacticians in the Pentagon must be going spare trying to figure it all out and anticipate what's going to happen next.

"Figuring out what's going to happen next" is always a problem in war, seeing that the other side is continually trying to out-guess you.

The main complication I can see right now, is that there seem two be two over-arching conflicts, vying for pre-eminence. One is the War of Terror, perpetrated by the Caliphate, Mahmoud Abbas, Hamas, Al-Shabaab, Boko Haram and other players. This is the conflict that makes it to the evening news, because it is colorful and eye-catching, with all the blood, smoke, severed heads and other body parts, etc. The other conflict, which is only written about in esoteric weeklies and blogs, is the renewed "Cold War" between BRICS and the West.

The above competition has a lot to do with the apparent confusion in Washington, DC: According to the news depictions, the US ought to be fighting on the side of the Russians, against those bloody awful Sunni extremists. According to a long-term, serious strategic analysis, though, we ought to be on the side of the Turks -- who are vital for reining in the Russians -- while doing everything possible to undermine our Cold War foes. The result seems to be a show by the US and NATO of opposing ISIS, while covertly supporting them. You continued,

"I think the Russians will get closer to the EU and America will have to grudgingly accept a new status quo and go along with them.It's better for all of us if Russia understands we're not against them."

Russia understands, correctly, that we actually ARE against them. As for the EU, they know that the US is a safer partner than Russia. We're in the middle of a petrol glut at the moment, so the Russkies don't have much to offer the Europeans. The US is incredibly enmeshed with the EU -- by multiple treaties and alliances, by a shared history and culture and, most importantly, by multi-national corporations operating in both markets.

Concerning "the Americans" accepting something, grudgingly or otherwise, let me tell you something: There is no longer any such thing as an "American". We've been charicatured by the press so much for so many years, most people have only a video-game or comic-book version of someone's idea of an "American". In my generation, we grew up with Walt Disney depictions of Davey Crockett and Daniel Boone; we watched John Wayne and "Rawhide" on TV, along with "I love Lucy", "the Nelsons", the whole hot dog. We went to the State Fair together instead of working our computers alone; we saw the same commercials, listened to the same folk songs, and read the same Bible. Today, that's all only in the memories of a dying generation. The rest have been bred with sound bytes and special effects. You went on,

"Yes - Obama has been incrediby patronising and insulting the intelligence of Americans but all of us in the free world. His lack of action in several areas can no longer be put down to him just being inept. Not bombing the crap out of Isis's oil fields and tankers in the fit 6 months of last year appeared to be a massive tactical failure - but now seems quite deliberate."

Obama is deliberately following the dictates of his own warped conscience. God save us during the months remaining, until we rubber-stamp the next lunatic.

"Today he's on the news banging on about climate change and for once he's not reading from an autocue (unless its implanted in hs retinas). He has lots (of obvious, feel-good things) to say on this 'if avg global temp goes up 2C degree we're all doomed' theme. But it's clear there are far more pressing issues which are a more imminent and actual threat to human life - as you've outlned above."

Saving the globe (OK -- not really; it's more mirrors than smoke, and nobody's saving anyone) sounds more heroic, to some, than balancing the budget. As I said, "God save us". No other words are productive.

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