The Issue is Hegemony and its victims are unaware
Paul Craig Roberts
In the Western World, and perhaps worldwide, Russia’s unwillingness to retaliate for the destruction of the Nord Stream Pipeline hurt Russia’s prestige and convinced Washington’s Zionist neoconservatives that Putin’s Russia was a paper tiger. In fact, Washington was already convinced, or Washington would not have dared to blow up the pipeline bringing Russian energy to Europe. Try to imagine Washington pulling such an aggressive attack on Russia when there was the Soviet Union. Putin has gone along with Washington’s pretense that it is unknown who is responsible. Certainly, Putin doesn’t want it blamed on Washington as he would be expected to do something about it.
But he wouldn’t. Just like he wouldn’t do anything about Washington’s attack on the Russian strategic bomber fleet. Just like he wouldn’t do anything about Washington’s attempt to kill him in his home with missile attacks. Just like he won’t do anything about the capture of Russian oil tankers. Just like he refuses to use sufficient force to end a minor conflict that is turning into one of the longest wars in recent times, ever-widening into strikes deep into Russian civilian and energy production areas.
All Putin does is fawn over Trump, never missing an opportunity to send a greeting and express his openness to negotiations.
I call him Putin the Unready for good reason. The Wolfowitz Doctrine that the principle goal of US foreign policy is to prevent the rise of any power that could serve as a constraint on Washington as the uni-polar power has been known since the Soviet collapse. But apparently not in the Putin Kremlin. Putin was caught completely off guard by Washington-instigated attack by Georgia, a former province of Russia, on South Ossetia in 2008. At least Putin did something about this, but it was the last time there was a Russian response to provocations. Instead, the Russian foreign policy community started talking about a “New Yalta.”
When Washington overthrew the Russian-friendly democratically-elected government in Ukraine, a former Russian province, Putin lacked the wits to see what was obvious. Washington was going to use Ukraine for a proxy war against the Russian state with the intention of destabilizing or isolating the Russian government. Instead of facing reality, Putin hid behind the Minsk Agreement that the West used to deceive him while the West created a Ukrainian army..
When the US Biden regime, the EU, and NATO gave a total cold shoulder to Putin and Lavrov’s plea for a mutual security agreement that would permit normal relations between Russia and the West, and the large American trained and equipped Ukrainian Army was about to invade the breakaway Russian Donbas, territory part of Russia but for political or other reasons placed in the Soviet province of Ukraine, a totally unprepared Putin had to intervene.
Why was the leader of a powerful country unprepared? Because Putin was unaware of the Wolfowitz doctrine of American hegemony or did not take it seriously, as apparently neither did the entirety of Russian intelligence and foreign policy experts, just as the entire Muslim world is unaware, despite its obviousness openly acknowledged by Israel, of the Zionist agenda of Greater Israel. At times Putin says the West intends to destroy Russia, but his acknowledgement does not seem to enter into his operating strategy. This is why I say Putin is unaware. The same holds for Muslin awareness of Greater Israel. Perhaps Iran’s leaders understand, but a response to the Zionist agenda is missing in Iran’s approach to the conflict. Indeed, general unawareness of the Zionist agenda can be seen in the decades old “two state solution.”
Whereas Israel claims hegemony over a region–the Middle East– Washington’s region is the entire world. The purpose of US foreign policy is to prevent the rise of any state that can serve as a limit on American hegemony. Such states are believed to be Russia, China and Iran.
Israel’s hegemony is expressed in terms of the Zionist agenda of Greater Israel. Originally this was the territory from the Nile to the Euphrates. Recently Israeli ministers have defined Israel as reaching from the Nile to Pakistan, including the non-Arab states of Turkey and Iran. The Russian foreign minister is as unaware of the Zionist agenda as the Muslin world, which has failed to make an issue of the agenda. Lavrov recently said that Washington and Israel initiated war against Iran to prevent Iran from normalizing relations with the Gulf states in order to cause Arabs to abandon support for Palestine. Lavrov’s explanation fails to recognize the Zionist project of Israeli hegemony over the Middle East and that Iran is the largest obstacle to Israel’s hegemony.
Controlling energy flows is part of Washington’s hegemony. According to Russian foreign minister Lavrov, Washington wants to purchase the destroyed Nord Stream pipeline and use the energy flows to control Europe. (See: https://www.zerohedge.com/energy/us-wants-restore-nord-stream-pipeline-purchase-europeans-steep-discount-lavrov ) The scheme seems to be that the US would take possession of the pipeline and repair it, and Russia would provide the gas for Washington to sell to Europe. Questioned, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov replied that there were many mutually beneficial projects for Russia and the US once the Ukraine conflict was resolved. It does seem that the negotiations between Russia’s Kirill Dmitriev and Trump’s two Jewish negotiators, Witcoff and Kushner, are more concerned with business deals than with Putin’s original objectives.
Neither Russia nor Iran seem to understand that they are confronted with hegemonic agendas. How exactly do you negotiate with powers whose intention is to end your sovereignty?
Peace requires Washington to renounce the Wolfowitz Doctrine and Israel to renounce Greater Israel. Without these renunciations, no negation means anything.