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The US and Russia Have to Work Together Against International Terrorism (Audio Podcast)
Terrorist
organizations are the number one existential threat, not “Putin’s
Russia,” and Russia is the best ally America could have in fighting
them
7
July, 2016
Listen to the podcast HERE
Nation contributing
editor Stephen F. Cohen and John Batchelor continue their weekly
discussions of the new US-Russian Cold War. (Previous installments
are at TheNation.com.)
The focus of this discussion is the growing threat of international
terrorism, from the Middle East, Europe, and elsewhere to American
homeland security.
Cohen
makes three large points, which he and Batchelor then discuss.
First, the Obama administration and its generals have repeatedly
stated that Russia under Vladimir Putin is the “number-one
existential threat” in the world today. This is a virtually
impeachable misconception of national security. Today’s several
international terrorist organizations are a new phenomenon, not
loners with a gun or a bomb, but a highly organized menace with
state-like funding, armies, technology, and communications—and
currently in search of radioactive materials to enrich their already
highly destructive acts, which could make areas they strike
uninhabitable for many years. Second, Russia—because of its
decades fighting terrorism at home and abroad and its geopolitical
location in Europe and in the Islamic world—has special
experience, intelligence, and other assets that Washington and its
current allies lack. (Cohen recalls, as an example, that Moscow
informed Washington about the Boston bombers months before they
struck, but the warning was disregarded.) Third, Washington has
steadfastly excluded a willing Russia from its own ineffectual “war
against terrorism,” refusing meaningful cooperation with Moscow.
For their part, mainstream media “analyses” about what to do,
after each new terrorist act, rarely if ever even mentions a role
for Russia. The most compelling example is the considerable damage
inflicted on the Islamic State in Syria by Putin’s air campaign
allied with Syrian Army and Iranian “boots on the ground”—an
achievement denigrated, when noted at all, by the US political-media
establishment, partly because of its Cold War against Russia,
reflected in NATO’s current and provocative build-up on Russia’s
Western borders, and to its self-defeating obsession with
overthrowing Syrian President Assad.
Cohen
then reports what may be a positive development. According to
sources close to Obama, though not in the administration, the
president now wants a rapprochement with Russia before leaving
office, as part of his presidential legacy, beginning in Syria.
Related reports were published by The Washington Post, but only
to express strong opposition, led, it seems, by Secretary of Defense
Ashton Carter, to any kind of détente with Putin. American Cold
Warriors, Cohen adds, understand that cooperation in Syria could
spread to resolving the Ukrainian crisis and other US-Russian
conflicts—that is, to ending or at least winding down the new Cold
War. Meanwhile, Cohen also reports, Putin has recently made several
public statements expressing his readiness for large-scale
cooperation with Obama—“We
do not hold grudges,” he
remarked—and in particular for a “broad anti-terrorism front.”
On
the other hand, says Cohen, his sources also report that in this
regard Obama is virtually alone in high-level Washington circles,
including among his own White House security advisers. Cohen ends by
reflecting on a possible irony. Obama, who once vowed to “isolate”
Putin—probably the world’s busiest international statesman in
recent months—may now find himself isolated in his own
Listen to the podcast HERE
This is NATO propaganda
And some discussion from Don DeBar at CPR Metro, New York
This is NATO propaganda
And some discussion from Don DeBar at CPR Metro, New York
This is from June, 2016
Anakonda 16 on the Russian Frontier
Stephen F. Cohen. NYU, Princeton, EastWestAccord.com
To listen to podcast GO HERE
Anakonda
16 on the Russian Frontier. Stephen F. Cohen. NYU, Princeton,
EastWestAccord.com.
"...The
general said Russia was needed in the international community;
however, this was impossible at the moment due to the country's "sole
respect for power."
"He
emphasised that about 7,000 Russian troops were stationed in Abkhazia
and South Ossetia, two territories viewed by the international
community as Georgian regions occupied by Russia.
"In
Hodges' words, about 20,000 Russian troops are currently present in
the Crimea peninsula occupied by Russia, and about 20 Ukrainian
soldiers were last week killed during clashes with Moscow-supported
separatists in Eastern Ukraine regardless of ceasefire agreements.
"This
is a serious challenge; this is not an academic exercise and the only
way we keep it from becoming a real crisis is if we stick together,
the Alliance stick together and demonstrate that we are committed,"
the US general noted.
"He
added that Lithuania had been precisely meeting the commitments
assumed during the last NATO Summit in Wales by not only boosting
defense spending but also by organising exercises and developing its
Armed Forces.
"Ahead
of the NATO Summit in Warsaw, the three Baltic States seek deployment
of an international Allied battalion of about 1,000 soldiers in each
of their territories. NATO's Military Committee has given a green
light to stationing of the units in Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, and
Poland...."
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