Putin is poised to run through Ukraine like a hot knife through butter. Short of launching ICBM’s with nuclear weapons, there is little that NATO can do to counter the Russian takeover of Ukraine.
The 21st century has been widely touted as the Chinese century. That proclamation may be a bit premature. Putin is piling up an impressive string of victories and when the smoke clears from the present crisis, Putin may have established the Russians as the emerging dominant power on the planet.
By losing Ukraine to the Russians and thwarting the EU’s attempts at persuading Ukraine into joining the European Union, bad days lie ahead. The IMF, the World Bank, NATO, the Obama Administration and the Petrodollar are about to be dealt a devastating blow.
Putin is about to unleash a series of “secret weapons” so devastating, that the West may not be able effectively respond. Thus, the West, that would be you and me, will not recover.
The end of the NATO alliance and the seeds of America’s decline are explained in the following chart. Germany, America’s most important NATO ally, receives 36% of its gas from Russia. Italy receives 27% and France receives 23% of it gas from Russia.
Sixty six percent of exported Russian natural gas and oil run through Ukraine. When Ukraine is firmly in the hands of Russia, Putin will hold the trump card over a large portion of European energy needs. How generous is Putin feeling?
Putin’s energy trump card lies in the fact that he can charge almost whatever he wants for gas being shipped into Europe. Some are speculating that Putin will use a classic divide and conquer strategy to drive a wedge between European interests and that of the United States.
Imagine the following scenario for a moment. Putin informs the European Union that he will no longer accept the dollar (i.e. the world’s reserve currency) as an acceptable form of currency from which to purchase their Russian imported energy products. This will have a crippling effect on the dollar, and thus, the American economy.
If Putin does refuse to accept the dollar as payment from Europe for its gas, what effect will that have on the NATO alliance? Will France, Italy and Germany succumb to Putin’s coming blackmail and will the Europeans chose economic solvency over military alliances? I would strongly suggest that the Europeans will choose economic solvency. As a result, NATO will be permanently fractured.
It is not difficult to see that Putin will forge a two tiered pricing for his exports. A discounted price will be offered to those countries desiring to make their purchase in the Euro. An elevated price will be charged to those nations who still insist on using the dollar as the medium of exchange in order to not offend their American allies. The dollar, as the World’s reserve currency is in a lot of trouble.
Putin has time on his side as he has the ability to bleed the American economy dry. As he manipulates the world to abandon the dollar, the US economy will come to a grinding halt. Hyper-inflation will be upon us. The American standard of living will plummet. The percentage of GDP being invested into the military will go into a tail spin. Spare parts technology, the lifeblood of any fighting force will erode and much of the American military will resemble a junkyard more than a modern military fighting machine.
In order to stop the bleeding, Obama only has a small window in which to act. Obama may not be able to control the demise of the dollar with regard to Europe’s soon-to-be energy purchases, however, it is likely that Obama will soon stage a false flag event, blame Syria, in order to have a pretext from which to invade Syria as a precursor to invading Iran and slowing the demise of the Petrodollar in the Middle East.
NATO will still disintegrate, but Obama would slow the bleeding of the Petrodollar while he and his puppet masters search for answers.
My sources tell me that Putin is furiously arming Assad, in Syria, with high grade military equipment and numerous battlefield ready weapons in anticipation of a coming American military intervention. Assad is being armed with the capability to turn Syria into a modern-day Vietnam. Again, time is on the side of Putin. Can America afford another military quagmire? It is likely that Obama will be checkmated again by the much more savvy Putin.
The upper chamber of the Russian parliament has ratified an international treaty with Crimea, which accepts the former Ukrainian region as a new part of Russia. 155 senators present at the meeting voted unanimously.
They also passed a bill amending the Russian constitution to allow for the addition of Crimea and the city of Sevastopol to the list of administrative parts of the Russian Federation.
The expected move comes a day after members of the lower chamber passed the two documents, with only one MP voting against.
The treaty and the bill were submitted for the approval of Russian lawmakers on Tuesday by President Vladimir Putin, following last week’s referendum in Crimea, which showed the overwhelming support of the peninsula’s residents for joining Russia.
The Russian senators also requested the United States to add them to their sanction lists. The statement to that effect brands the American move and a similar measure by the EU “an unprecedented move of political blackmail.”
“We are ready for the entire corps of the Federation Council, all senators to joint that sanction list,”Speaker Valentina Matvienko said. She personally is already targeted by the US sanctions.
The senators’ request follows a similar move by members of the lower parliamentary chamber.
The statement also says that senators are baffled by the fact that Washington and Brussels treat an armed coup in Ukraine as a legitimate act of the people while consider a free referendum in Crimea illegal.
The buildup of Russian troops along the Ukrainian border is large and getting larger, and it is raising serious concerns that Russia could invadeUkraine proper.
Right now, there are as many as 20,000 Russian troops, complete with tanks and artillery, positioned just to the east of Ukraine. But other units deeper inside Russia appear to be on the move and could soon double the number of troops at the border.
On Thursday, Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel called Moscow to ask Russia's defense minister directly about the troop movements.
On Thursday, Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel called Moscow to ask Russia's defense minister directly about the troop movements.
Pentagon spokesman Adm. John Kirby said the Russian promised there would be no invasion.
"It's an exercise only, no intention of crossing the border into Ukraine, not going to take any aggressive action," Kirby said. "That was Minister Shoigu's words, and Secretary Hagel's expectation is that he will live up to those words."
The obvious next question is: How long will the exercise last? When Hagel asked that of the Russian defense minister, the answer was that there is no firm timetable.
"It's an exercise only, no intention of crossing the border into Ukraine, not going to take any aggressive action," Kirby said. "That was Minister Shoigu's words, and Secretary Hagel's expectation is that he will live up to those words."
The obvious next question is: How long will the exercise last? When Hagel asked that of the Russian defense minister, the answer was that there is no firm timetable.
Amid rising tension on Israel’s northern borders, a senior IDF officer said Thursday that Syria will likely enter the fray if Israel is forced to wage war with Hezbollah in the near future. He also said the investigations of the two most recent cross-border ambushes, along the Lebanon and Syrian borders, point to a string of missteps by the Israeli forces in the area.
The official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, detailed two recent attacks on Israeli army patrols along the northern border, saying that they pointed to a need for the IDF to shift its tactics and up readiness on the increasingly volatile border
“There are a million lessons, and they are not very good,” he said of the conclusions still being drawn from the March 14 and March 18 roadside bombs, in the Har Dov region, just west of Mount Hermon, and in the nearby Golan Heights.
The officer, speaking to several journalists, focused on Syria and the way the war in that country is reshaping the Middle East and altering the nature of Israel’s security challenges.
He described Bashar Assad’s regime as being kept afloat by a combination of Iranian military direction, Hezbollah forces, and Russian arms. Speaking of Quds Force commander Qassem Suleimani, the officer confirmed that the Iranian general has had an enormous impact on the war effort. “The person running the entire campaign is a man by the name of Suleimani, a Revolutionary Guard,” he said. “He is primarily based in Syria and he is the forward representative of Iran” – which chooses where to fight and where to withdraw.
The fighting itself is often done by Hezbollah troops. The organization, which he portrayed as increasingly under Iran’s direct control, maintains between 3,000-5,000 troops on Syrian soil and has lost 500 men in the war, with 2,000 more wounded, according to Israeli estimates.
Such a war would resemble previous campaigns, but Hezbollah, which possesses the eighth largest arsenal of rockets in the world, has instituted several changes in its battle doctrine, all of which will make the war more gruesome.
Still feeling that rocket-based terror is the most effective form of offense against Israel, the organization has continually sought to increase the quantity, accuracy, and destruction capacity of its 100,000-rocket arsenal, he said. “If in Operation Pillar of Defense we faced 1,500 rockets in a week, against Hezbollah it’ll be 3,000 a day,” he said, referring to the eight-day engagement with Hamas in Gaza in 2012.
Additionally, Hezbollah’s invaluable combat experience in Syria –”certainly a matter that very much concerns us” — coupled with its decision to move its arsenal into populated areas, often sandwiched between residential floors of buildings, means that the IDF will have to operate forcefully in Lebanese towns and cities in the next conflict. “It’s going to be ugly,” the officer said.
Iran is building a nonworking mock-up of an American nuclear-powered aircraft carrier that US officials say may be intended to be blown up for propaganda value.
Intelligence analysts studying satellite photos of Iranian military installations first noticed the vessel rising from the Gachin shipyard, near Bandar Abbas on the Persian Gulf, last summer. The ship has the same distinctive shape and style of the Navy's Nimitz-class carriers, as well as the USS Nimitz's No. 68 neatly painted in white near the bow. Mock aircraft can be seen on the flight deck.
The Iranian mock-up, which US officials described as more like a barge than a warship, has no nuclear propulsion system and is only about two-thirds the length of a typical 1,100-foot-long Navy (335 metre) carrier. Intelligence officials do not believe that Iran is capable of building an actual aircraft carrier.
"Based on our observations, this is not a functioning aircraft carrier; it's a large barge built to look like an aircraft carrier," said Commander Jason Salata, a spokesman for the Navy's 5th Fleet in Bahrain, across the Persian Gulf from Iran. "We're not sure what Iran hopes to gain by building this. If it is a big propaganda piece, to what end?"
Whatever the purpose, American officials acknowledged Thursday that they wanted to reveal the existence of the vessel to get out ahead of the Iranians.
US Secretary of State John Kerry has increased the possibility of renewed conflict in the Holy Land with some very confusing remarks this week refuting his earlier demand that the PLO recognize Israel as the Jewish State.
Kerry told members of the House Foreign Relations committee that:
- international law has already declared Israel a Jewish state, and
- Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu’s insistence on a public declaration of Israel’s Jewish character from the PLO was “a mistake” in the diplomatic process.
Netanyahu has made it clear on many occasions that without the PLO making such a declaration—no negotiated “two-state solution” can ever be achieved.
Kerry’s contradictory statements appear to have cut the ground from under Netanyahu’s feet.
The PLO can now confidently expect that its rejection of this express Israeli demand would be supported by America as being:
Kerry’s contradictory statements appear to have cut the ground from under Netanyahu’s feet.
The PLO can now confidently expect that its rejection of this express Israeli demand would be supported by America as being:
- reasonable and
- allow the PLO to walk away from the negotiations because Israel unreasonably persisted with that demand.
America brought to its knees economically by the global financial crisis and its disastrous forays into Iraq and Afghanistan is apparently—as a declared goal of American foreign policy - prepared to soften its support for Israel if this opens up new business opportunities for America in Islamic countries.
Kerry’s policy risks the Holy Land being turned again into an arena of violent conflict - as those who rejected the 1947 UN Partition Plan are emboldened by Kerry’s remarks to contemplate again attempting what six Arab armies unsuccessfully tried to do in 1948—eliminate the Jewish State.
Abandoning the Holy Land for the holy dollar is a recipe for another potential humanitarian disaster and an American foreign policy failure of massive proportions.
Will President Obama and the Congress allow this to happen?
Kerry’s policy risks the Holy Land being turned again into an arena of violent conflict - as those who rejected the 1947 UN Partition Plan are emboldened by Kerry’s remarks to contemplate again attempting what six Arab armies unsuccessfully tried to do in 1948—eliminate the Jewish State.
Abandoning the Holy Land for the holy dollar is a recipe for another potential humanitarian disaster and an American foreign policy failure of massive proportions.
Will President Obama and the Congress allow this to happen?
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