I listened live to Putin’s speech yesterday with great interest. Here is my own analysis, for what it is worth.
Putin was strongest in his accusations of western hypocrisy. His ironic welcoming of the West having suddenly discovered the concept of international law was very well done. His analysis of the might is right approach the West had previously adopted, and their contempt of the UN over Iraq and Afghanistan, was spot on. Putin also was absolutely right in describing the Kosovo situation as “highly analogous” to the situation in Crimea. That is indeed true, and attempts by the West – including the Guardian – to argue the cases are different are pathetic exercises in special pleading.
The problem is that Putin blithely ignored the enormous logical inconsistency in his argument. He stated that the Crimean and Kosovo cases were highly analogous, but then used that to justify Russia’s action in Crimea, despite the fact that Russia has always maintained the NATO Kosovo intervention was illegal(and still refuses to recognize Kosovo). In fact of course Russia was right over Kosovo, and thus is wrong over Crimea.
I was very interested that Putin made distinct reference to the appalling crimes against the Tartars in the 1930’s, but also to the terrible suffering of Ukrainians in that period. His references were not detailed but their meaning was clear. I was surprised because under Putin’s rule there has been a great deal of rehabilitation of Stalin. Archives that were opened under glasnost have frozen over again, and history in Russian schools now portrays Stalin’s foreign policy achievement much more than his crimes (and it is now again possible to complete your Russian school education with no knowledge the Stalin-Hitler pact ever happened). So this was both surprising and positive. Designed to be positive was his assurance that Crimea will be trilingual. We will see what happens; Putin’s Russia is in fact not tolerant of its ethnic populations in majority Russian areas, and in fact contains a great many more far right thugs than Ukraine – probably about the same percentage of the population.
The 97% referendum figure is simply unbelievable to any reasonable person and is straight out of the Soviet playbook – it was strange to see Putin going in and out of modern media friendly mode and his audience, with their Soviet en brosse haircuts and synchronized clapping – obviously liked the Soviet bits best.
The attempt to downplay Russia’s diplomatic isolation was also a bit strange. He thanked China, though China had very pointedly failed to support Russian in the Security Council. When you are forced to thank people for abstaining, you are not in a strong position diplomatically. He also thanked India, which is peculiar, because the Indian PM yesterday put out a press release saying Putin had called him, but the had urged Putin to engage diplomatically with the interim government in Kiev, which certainly would not be welcome to Putin. I concluded that Putin was merely trying to tell his domestic audience Russia has support, even when it does not.
But what I find really strange is that the parts of the speech I found most interesting have not drawn any media comment I can see. Putin plainly said that in his discussions with Kuchma on the boundaries of Ukraine after the collapse of the Soviet Union, they hadn’t wanted to open any dispute with what they expected to be a friendly neighbor, and that therefore the boundaries of Ukraine had never been finally demarcated. He said twice the boundaries had not been demarcated. That seemed to indicate a very general threat to Eastern Ukraine. He also spoke of the common heritage of Russia, Belarus and Ukraine in a way that indicated that he did not accept that Ukraine might choose a political future away from Russia.
Secondly, he said that on the day the Soviet Union broke up, Russians in many places had “woken up to find themselves in a foreign country.” Again from the context in which he said it, this referred not just to Crimea, and not just even to the rest of Ukraine, but to Russian nationals all over the Former Soviet Union. I would be worrying a lot about this part of the speech if I was Kazakh, to give just one example. Putin seemed to be outlining a clear agenda to bring Russian speaking areas of CIS countries back in to Mother Russia – indeed, I see no other possible interpretation of his actions in Georgia and Ukraine.
I think that we should start listening much more carefully to what he says. I also think that the weakness of the EU’s response to events gives Putin a very dangerous encouragement to pursue further aggrandizement. I posted a few days ago:
The EU I expect to do nothing. Sanctions will target a few individuals who are not too close to Putin and don’t keep too many of their interests in the West. I don’t think Alisher Usmanov and Roman Abramovic need lose too much sleep, that Harrods need worry or that we will see any flats seized at One Hyde Park. (It is among my dearest wishes one day to see One Hyde Park given out for council housing.) Neither do I expect to see the United States do anything effective; its levers are limited.
The truth is of course that the global political elite are in the pockets of the global financial elite, and while ordinary Russians are still desperately poor, the money the oligarchs rip out of Russia’s backward commodity exporting economy is parceled around the world financial system in ways that make it impossible for the western political classes to do anything. Whose funds would the hedge fund managers look after? Whose yacht could Mandelson and Osborne holiday on?
Personally I should like to see a complete financial freeze on the entire Russian oligarchy. The knock on effects would only hurt a few bankers, and city types and those who depend on them (cocaine dealers, lap dancers, Porsche dealers, illegal domestic servants). Sadly we shan’t see anything happen. They won’t let Eton go bust.
Macky
“I didn’t say you were; just pointing out there’s a huge wild forest fire raging compared to the little bonfire you seem to exclusively focus on.”
Unlike you I lived under Russian rule and I know what it is. What seems like little bonfire to you is more than volcanic explosion to me. My home region and my home country could well be next in line for Russian fire power projection. I really DO NOT want that to happen.
“But they are not ! What they are doing is objecting to a violent coup that put into power not just fascists, but Western stooge fascists who will bring NATO missiles right up to their border. The realpolitik context is strangely missing in the MSM narrative.”
According to CanSpeccy (another leftie) it would be like suicide for Ukraine. Do you really believe in all out nuclear war with Russia? It did not happen even under Regan why would it happen now? What I see it Russia is 1.projecting its power, 2.intimidating former colony, 3. grabbed land from former colony by staging selective Russian only popular vote, 4. sending signal to other former colonies that whether or not they like their sovereignty is now limited to Moscow’s approval of their foreign policy.
“If you think I’m giving anybody a green light to kill anybody, then not only are you misreading, misapprehending, misrepresenting, but arguing with a “MAD Leftie” Macky that only exists in your imagination.”
My English is not brilliant but I think you just DID by comparing Russian intervention to Crimea to little bonfire on which (if I interpret you right) I should not be focusing.
Sofia Kibo Noh
Thank you I shall read that book. As mentioned earlier Myth of American Diplomacy made effect on me and made me rethink Manifest Destiny and Monroe Doctrine. I advise you to read this book. It start with explanation of of revisionist history of US is impressive on its own account.
But extermination of American Indians is not an excuse to let Russia to rip Ukraine (and others to follow) apart, not to me at least.
I am very sensitive to cases of Russian Chauvinism and unceremonious projection of Russian power onto its former colonies. Russia to me have more than enough land surface under its constitutional sovereign control. Let them manage it properly first and it might be that former colonies will look at it with respect and not fear.
From Putin’s speech. An interesting bit I thought.
http://eng.kremlin.ru/transcripts/6889
Uzbek in the UK; “What seems like little bonfire to you is more than volcanic explosion to me”
Yes I understand to those affected, fire is fire; however in the wider context of comparative fire damage, I am mystified by those not actually in the path of any fire, insisting that the bonfire is worse than the forest fire.
“Do you really believe in all out nuclear war with Russia? It did not happen even under Regan why would it happen now?”
No need for actual war. All that is needed for US hegemony over Russia is for the complete encirclement by NATO missiles.
“What I see it Russia is 1.projecting its power, 2.intimidating former colony, 3. grabbed land from former colony by staging selective Russian only popular vote, 4. sending signal to other former colonies that whether or not they like their sovereignty is now limited to Moscow’s approval of their foreign policy.”
I see a Russia reacting because of fearing ending up looted like Greece, or destroyed like Yugoslavia/Iraq.
“My English is not brilliant but I think you just DID by comparing Russian intervention to Crimea to little bonfire on which (if I interpret you right) I should not be focusing.”
No, you are not interpreting me correctly; see above first point.
@Uzbek in the UK 20 Mar, 2014 – 12:09 am
“For the sake of humanity, can we please stop quoting RT as a source for at least as long as dust over Crimea sets? Is not it obvious that this is one of the major channels of official Russian propaganda to the western audience? Quoting RT now (to me) would be like quoting CNN during Iraq invasion.”
A few day ago RT America Television did a clever and refreshing thing. One of their programs cheerfully admitted that they are indeed selling pro-Kremlin propaganda.
They then proceeded with short clips interviewing reporters and editors who had worked (now ex) for various US news outlets. They explained what happens to anyone who annoys the administration in power, particularly the current White House.
Reporters and editors are besieged by phone calls with demands accompanied by implied threats.
The same applies to anyone reporting unfavourably on powerful corporate interests.
It’s the first time I recall anyone plainly confessing to propaganda, not even the old Pravda, which most obviously was, but maintained the fiction of Truth.
RT’s point was everything is biased news; pick whatever agrees with your view of the world.
It would be nice if Western media, CNN, Fox, BBC, NYT, etc. finally dropped any pretense of neutrality. They’re all mouthpieces for some faction or another, depending upon the issue, and are especially dangerous when they all speak with one voice.
Such Gross ignorance…. Re Great Father Chief’s Ect fking Cetra…
Almost ALL the natives spoke in this way….
i have posted images of my own work online… in relation to this chief’s Sad words –
At last I was granted permission to come to Washington and bring my friend Yellow Bull and our interpreter with me. I am glad I came. I have shaken hands with a good many friends, but there are some things I want to know which no one seems able to explain. I cannot understand how the Government sends a man out to fight us, as it did General Miles, and then breaks his word. Such a government has something wrong about it. I cannot understand why so many chiefs are allowed to talk so many different ways, and promise so many different things. I have seen the Great Father Chief [President Hayes]; the Next Great Chief [Secretary of the Interior]; the Commissioner Chief; the Law Chief; and many other law chiefs [Congressmen] and they all say they are my friends, and that I shall have justice, but while all their mouths talk right I do not understand why nothing is done for my people. I have heard talk and talk but nothing is done. Good words do not last long unless they amount to something. Words do not pay for my dead people. They do not pay for my country now overrun by white men. They do not protect my father’s grave. They do not pay for my horses and cattle. Good words do not give me back my children. Good words will not make good the promise of your war chief, General Miles. Good words will not give my people a home where they can live in peace and take care of themselves. I am tired of talk that comes to nothing. It makes my heart sick when I remember all the good words and all the broken promises. There has been too much talking by men who had no right to talk. Too many misinterpretations have been made; too many misunderstandings have come up between the white men and the Indians. If the white man wants to live in peace with the Indian he can live in peace. There need be no trouble. Treat all men alike. Give them the same laws. Give them all an even chance to live and grow. All men were made by the same Great Spirit Chief. They are all brothers. The earth is the mother of all people, and all people should have equal rights upon it. You might as well expect all rivers to run backward as that any man who was born a free man should be contented penned up and denied liberty to go where he pleases. If you tie a horse to a stake, do you expect he will grow fat? If you pen an Indian up on a small spot of earth and compel him to stay there, he will not be contented nor will he grow and prosper. I have asked some of the Great White Chiefs where they get their authority to say to the Indian that he shall stay in one place, while he sees white men going where they please. They cannot tell me.
Chief Josehp.
“i have posted images of my own work online”
Brian; What are you talking about? Where online?
NR
RE….Rt
Behind the coverage of Wahl’s dramatic protest, a cadre of neoconservatives was celebrating a public relations coup. Desperate to revive the Cold War, head off further cuts to the defense budget and restore the legitimacy they lost in the ruins of Iraq, the tightknit group of neoconservative writers and stewards had opened up a new PR front through Wahl’s resignation. And they succeeded with no shortage of help from an ossified media establishment struggling to maintain credibility in an increasingly anarchic online news environment. With isolated skeptics branded as useful idiots for Putin, the scene has been kept clean of neoconservative fingerprints, obscuring their interest in Wahl’s resignation and the broader push to deepen tensions with Russia.
The story began at 5:07 p.m. Eastern time on March 5.
PR From PNAC 2.0
It was a full 19 minutes before Wahl resigned. Inside the offices of the Foreign Policy Initiative, a neoconservative think tank in Washington D.C., a staffer logged on to the group’s Twitter account to announce the following:
“#WordOnTheStreet says that something big might happen on RT in about 20-25 minutes.”
Then, at 5:16, exactly 10 minutes before Wahl would quit on air, FPI tweeted:
“#WordOnTheStreet says you’re really going to want to tune in to RT: http://rt.com/on-air/rt-america-air/ #SomethinBigMayBeGoingDown”
Up until two minutes before Wahl’s resignation, FPI took to Twitter again to urge its followers to tune in to RT.
And finally, at 5:26 p.m., at the very moment Wahl quit, FPI’s Twitter account broke the news: “RT Anchor RESIGNS ON AIR. She ‘cannot be part of a network that whitewashes the actions of Putin.’ ”
The tweets from FPI suggested a direct level of coordination between Wahl and the neoconservative think tank. Several calls to FPI for this story were not answered.
Just over an hour later, an exclusive interview with Wahl appeared at The Daily Beast. It was authored by James Kirchick, a 31-year-old writer whose work has appeared in publications from the neoconservative Commentary to the liberal Israeli paper Haaretz.
Kirchick acknowledged having been in contact with Wahl since August, but cast himself as a passive bystander to the spectacle, claiming that they merely “stayed in touch periodically over the past 6 months, and I always encouraged her to follow her conscience in making a decision about her professional future.”
Kirchick wrote that by quitting, Wahl paid “the price real reporters—not Russian-government funded propagandists—have to pay if they are concerned with quaint notions like objectivity and the truth.”
Later that evening, Kirchick tweeted a photo of himself with Wahl, calling it a “Freedom selfie.” The two had apparently gathered to celebrate.
http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/how_cold_war-hungry_neocons_stage_managed_liz_wahls_resignation_20140319
“It would be nice if Western media, CNN, Fox, BBC, NYT, etc. finally dropped any pretense of neutrality”
NR-Well said. The problem is that objective reporting is what journalism schools teach. Objectivity is not the issue and the Network’s know this and proceed to fill the void in newsreaders heads with exactly that information which will lead to continued employment. Of course this is applied with some deniability, but the subliminal message is clear to the lizard brain—survival !.
Objectivity, as a thing in itself, is an oxymoron. But it is how students are taught. The high ideal, as it were. What they don’t teach is context because that’s another class closed for the semester.
You can’t be an effective reporter if you ask a question of the protaganist, and then the same question to the antagonist, without the historical follow up to past stances on the question.
This is why we can’t have nice things.
Craig; ” He stated that the Crimean and Kosovo cases were highly analogous, but then used that to justify Russia’s action in Crimea, despite the fact that Russia has always maintained the NATO Kosovo intervention was illegal(and still refuses to recognize Kosovo). In fact of course Russia was right over Kosovo, and thus is wrong over Crimea.”
Seems he did the opposite to me;
“We keep hearing from the United States and Western Europe that Kosovo is some special case. What makes it so special in the eyes of our colleagues? It turns out that it is the fact that the conflict in Kosovo resulted in so many human casualties. Is this a legal argument? The ruling of the International Court says nothing about this. This is not even double standards; this is amazing, primitive, blunt cynicism. One should not try so crudely to make everything suit their interests, calling the same thing white today and black tomorrow. According to this logic, we have to make sure every conflict leads to human losses.”
http://rt.com/news/putin-address-ten-quotes-778/
Uzbek.
Re “The Myth of American Diplomacy”. Thanks. Yes, a good look at why US culture nurtures a violent relationship with the world.
As for the discussion of events in Ukraine I suppose the bottom line for me is that the people there didn’t choose to be ruled by ultra-right, foreign sponsored thugs in Kiev. If I was a Ukrainian in Crimea would I choose as the lesser of two evils?
It’s stretching credibility a bit too far when we are expected to believe that the violent userpers of an elected government have more legality than an a population casting votes .
All this begs the question of what the response of the Russian state would be if the regional governments in Chechnya or Dagestan held a similar referendum.
Casting their votes.
Back to the instigator of the present mess, can you imagine the US managing a bloodless reaction if Russia had organised a coup in Mexico?
Ruth
Miliband said today that UK national debt has increased under this government by 40%. By 2008 the bankers had stolen all the capital at their disposal, and it has now been topped up again with highly-leveraged funny-money QE. The 40% extra borrowing showing on the books is just a credit card for keeping the UK head above water.
If oligarchs were used as fronts to launder Thatcher-era bankster-fraud, who is being used to launder Brown-era fraud?
And who owns and where is the real money? We are going to have months and months of blame-games about the economy before the election, so we might as well recognise now that both political parties borrow equally recklessly, and the purpose of Western democracy is purely for the benefit of a global elite.
I have not used any of my 944L tax code this year. Most people are up to their eyeballs in debt, with no sign of remission even in an election year. At least Miliband is prepared to state the reality.
@BrianFujisan @Ben
Brian, thanks for background on the Wahl story. Did not know that.
I think it was a week after the initial riots in Kiev that CNN, Fox and RT were still running endless loops of the original rioters on the left of the screen. Essentially the same footage except RT featured more people running around on fire while the other two concentrated on burning tires. Not one explained it was old video. (Same as Syria gas attacks.)
Right side box had commentators. CNN and Fox of course declared the rioters were freedom fighters while RT of course said they were neo-Nazi thugs.
If anything RT is easier on the eyes. Less of a pinball machine.
CNN and Fox now have from two to four boxes on screen(commentators or videos), plus a radar sweep as the background, plus the current breaking news story and a news ticker running at the bottom with unrelated stories, along with their network IDs. Fox adds a annoying permanent flashing, red “News Alert” along the bottom.
What a casual viewer, who might watch a half-hour or full hour, makes of all this I don’t know. A worthwhile study would do MRI studies on subjects watching it all.
Wait until the networks discover how to increase ratings by adding a box with endless YouTube cat videos.
Ben Sorry
here be they… Chief Looking Glass of the Nez Perze Nation….
https://www.flickr.com/photos/115454618@N06/12959425013/
https://www.flickr.com/photos/115454618@N06/12959424803/in/photostream/
No mention of the Zionists behind the Ukraine putsch?
There’s something very subtle and intriguing going on.
Putin is pressing the NATO bloc to argue in terms of the law. He’s gone over the head of the CIA regime to do it, in the NY Times and in a speech that anglophones can understand. For the first time in decades, the US population is learning the letter of the law. That’s revolutionary, when you consider the lawlessness of US doctrine, ‘realists’ and neocons competing to piss on the law. The American public has been kept in complete ignorance of the law. They don’t know what’s in the UN Charter or the International Bill of Human Rights or the Rome Statute. They don’t know that peace is the law. They don’t know that war’s above the president’s pay grade, and that everything between self-defense and pacific settlement of disputes is the prerogative not of the US but of the UNSC. They don’t know what non-interference means. Three-quarters of us want our government to play by the rules, and Putin’s teaching them that their instincts are sound, that international norms are not just a good idea, they’re the law.
Meanwhile, the Human Rights Committee is using non-discrimination as an entering wedge for all the rights the US government denies its people. The US government has been running from its most imperative duties by refusing to sign the CESCR, even though that’s a requirement for any sovereign state. The US regime doles out the rights to education, health, housing and all the means of life in discriminatory fashion, offering it to non-elites only as bait to make them take the hook of debt peonage. The Committee knows the world consensus – that states can’t pick and choose your rights – and they’re enforcing that rule.
And very gradually, the world is undercutting US official impunity. Article 8 bis will make criminals of the people who start wars. Individual jurisdictions are moving to extradite and prosecute US torturers and murderers. State responsibility for internationally wrongful acts is perfecting the Versailles Treaty as international criminal law is perfecting the Nuremberg Tribunal, so that US government criminals will have to take their medicine and the US government will have to pay for what it breaks.
It’s working. When’s the last time Congress declared war? They let the presidential puppet ruler take the fall, but he’s afraid to come out and say what he’s acquiesced to. With no one willing to take responsibility, CIA is increasingly desperate to conceal its crimes. The US government’s mafiya omerta’s breaking down.
Kessler finds Four Putin Pinocchios & i spy about an equal number in Kessler’s fact-checking:
19 March – WaPo – Glenn Kessler: Fact Checking Vladimir Putin’s speech on Crimea
A coup d’état is obviously in the eye of the beholder, but Putin, without meaning to, actually is describing the role of the former Russian-backed government when he refers to terror and murder during the uprisings.
Putin also exaggerates the role of right-wing, nationalistic factions, though it is true that a party with a neofascist past and other ultra-nationalistic elements are now part of the government. (The party claims it has mellowed, but the World Jewish Congress has warned about it.) The Guardian newspaper, in a long report on this issue, notes that one revolutionary killed by a government sniper “was an unlikely fascist,” adding that “he was Jewish.”…
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/fact-checker/wp/2014/03/19/fact-checking-vladimir-putins-speech-on-crimea/
it’s been a long, long time coming…
13 Dec, 2013: Remarks by Victoria Nuland
Since Ukraine’s independence in 1991, the United States has supported Ukrainians as they build democratic skills and institutions, as they promote civic participation and good governance, all of which are preconditions for Ukraine to achieve its European aspirations. We’ve invested over $5 billion to assist Ukraine in these and other goals that will ensure a secure and prosperous and democratic Ukraine…
http://iipdigital.usembassy.gov/st/english/texttrans/2013/12/20131216289031.html#axzz2wTa2JUuR
Wikipdia: Kateryna Yushchenko
She is a former U.S. State Department official. She worked as a special assistant to the Assistant Secretary of State for Human Rights and Humanitarian Affairs. She holds a bachelor degree in International Economics from the Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University (1982), and an MBA from the University of Chicago Graduate School of Business (1986).
She later worked in the White House in the Office of Public Liaison during the administration of Ronald Reagan. Subsequently, she worked at the U.S. Treasury in the executive secretary’s office during the administration of George H. W. Bush. After leaving that position, she was on the staff of the Joint Economic Committee of the United States Congress. After Ukraine declared its freedom, she was a co-founder and the vice-president of Ukraine-USA Foundation. She was also the director of Pylyp Orlyk Institute. In 1993, she joined KPMG Peat Marwick/Barents Group as a consultant in its Bank Training Program and Country Manager, where she met Viktor Yushchenko, whom she subsequently married. She left her job in August 2000, when she was expecting her second child…
Opponents of her husband Viktor Yushchenko criticized her for remaining a U.S. citizen. During the 2004 Ukrainian presidential election campaign,Chumachenko – Yushchenko was accused of exerting the influence of the U.S. government on her husband’s decisions, as an employee of the U.S. government or even a Central Intelligence Agency agent. She had earlier been accused by Russian television journalist Mikhail Leontyev of leading a U.S. project to help Yushchenko seize power in Ukraine; in January 2002, she won a libel case against him (citation needed)…
Ukraine’s pro-government Inter television channel repeated Leontyev’s allegations in 2001, but in January 2003 she won a libel case against the channel as well (no citation provided)…
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kateryna_Yushchenko
WHAT’S REALLY GOING ON IN VENEZUELA
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OVdel510hRk
Venezuela: Headline News 19 March 2014
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H7E5sIZuT0M
18 March – Reuters: Libyan Rebel Accuses US Navy of Piracy
A Libyan rebel leader accused the United States on Tuesday of behaving like pirates after U.S. naval forces seized an oil-laden tanker that had sailed from a rebel-held port in the east of the chaotic North African state.
Ibrahim Jathran’s defiant speech dampened hopes of a quick peaceful settlement with Libya’s central government to end a blockage of three oil ports his men took over in summer to press for eastern autonomy and a greater share of oil revenues.
The conflict reflects wider chaos in Libya where the government has been struggling to rein in militias that helped overthrow dictator Muammar Gaddafi in 2011 but kept their guns to become powerful political players…
“We will continue our fight for our right to dream of a better tomorrow for our children and families,” said Jathran, calling for the United Nations and Arab League to intervene to help the people of eastern Libya…
Western powers, worried that Libya might fracture or slide deeper into anarchy, have been training Libyan armed forces and cajoling conflicting parties in government to work together, to little avail.
But diplomats say the nascent army would struggle in any case to take on Jathran’s men, who helped overthrow Gaddafi. He defected last year as head of a state oil protection force, taking with him his armed men…
Oil exports have fallen to 100,000-120,000 barrels per day (bpd) in the last two weeks, acting oil minister Omar Shakmak told reporters. Exports have been well below capacity of around 1.25 million bpd since July.
Shakmak added that the El Sharara oilfield in the southwest, which can produce 340,000 bpd, was still shut down by protesters from a state security force making financial demands…
http://www.maritime-executive.com/article/Libyan-Rebel-Accuses-US-Navy-of-Piracy-2014-03-18/
let no-one suggest the US/NATO/allies had anything whatsoever to do with the above – Amb Jones is full of it:
17 Feb: Libya: Statement By Ambassador Deborah K. Jones On the Third Anniversary of Libya’s February 17 Revolution
As I look around this magnificent square, so filled with the remnants of Libya’s historic past – and signs of its transitional present, I am reminded that our shared history is long; our interactions date back to the late 18th century when the newly independent, revolutionary United States of America sent trading vessels to these shores. Indeed, Libyan place names, such as “Tripoli,” figure prominently in our own national narrative.
Much has happened since that time, and since February 17, 2011. Not least, Libya’s sons and daughters have taken the first steps on a long journey down a difficult path – the transition from dictatorship to democracy…
The United States will continue to work with Libya’s democratically elected government and institutions in support of these efforts, and stands by the Libyan people, in friendship and in alignment with the principles of liberty and human dignity that bind us together…
The Libya that emerges is in your hands, but the U.S. and our international partners stand with you as you join the community of nations, and this cooperation is already bearing fruit…
Along with the UK, Italy and Turkey, we are helping Libya build a General Purpose Force. The United States has pledged to train up to 8,000 Libyan soldiers from recruits hailing from across Libya, and to turn them into a force capable of protecting Libya’s institutions and national assets.
Government to government, we have strengthened our partnership through bilateral agreements on cultural preservation, higher education, law enforcement and security cooperation, and trade and investment.
In the last year alone, our two nations traded over three billion dollars’ worth of goods, marking a nearly fourfold increase since 2011. And as that trade grows, an increasing number of U.S. and international companies are returning to Libya to begin or resume work suspended since the revolution, and have begun creating thousands of jobs and injecting foreign direct investment into the economy…
You have already made clear your rejection of illegitimate attempts to derail your democratic journey. Your revolutionary American friends wish you well and stand by to support your ongoing efforts to build the new Libya with the same courage, unflagging effort, patience and enduring hope that gave you a winning team in South Africa. Libya, yes you can!
Elf mabruk mara thania, wa fi eman Allah.”
http://allafrica.com/stories/201402181329.html
israel “retaliates”:
19 March: CNN: Israel retaliates in Syria after roadside bomb attack against Israeli troops
Israel has warned Syria’s government that any aggression against Israeli citizens will be met with force, as a roadside bomb attack which injured Israeli troops prompted airstrikes on Syrian targets…
Netanyahu: “Our policy is very clear: We attack those who attack us.”…
Israeli forces responded to the blast with artillery fire aimed at Syrian military targets across the frontier, it said. This was followed by airstrikes early Wednesday.
“We will not tolerate any violation of our sovereignty and attacks against our soldiers and civilians, and we will act unwaveringly and with strength against all those that are acting against us, at every time and every place,” said Israeli Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon.
“We see the Assad regime as responsible for what is going on in its territory, and if it continues to cooperate with terror organizations that are trying to attack Israel, we will continue to extract a heavy price from him, in a way which will make him regret his actions.”…
http://edition.cnn.com/2014/03/19/world/meast/israel-syria-violence/
Israel is “under siege”:
19 March: Front Page: P. David Hornick: Israel Under Siege as Nuke Talks Open
But if Washington was upset by Yaalon’s latest words on Iran, it could hardly take comfort from a report in Haaretz on Wednesday that Netanyahu and Yaalon had ordered the Israeli army to prepare for a possible strike on Iran’s nuclear facilities in 2014…
Unlike the Western diplomats launching yet another round of talks in Vienna this week with a brutal regime, Israel does not have the luxury of living in a fantasy world…
http://www.frontpagemag.com/2014/davidhornik/israel-under-siege-as-nuke-talks-open/
how many times has Israel bombed Syria during the current conflict? four, five, six? have they been sanctioned by the UN? the US? the EU? what if they attack Iran?
some guys have all the luck –
19 March – Reuters – Exclusive: The mysterious journey of the Libya oil tanker
A Cypriot police source said two Israelis and a Senegalese who flew into Cyprus by Learjet and took a charter vessel toward the tanker were detained for questioning on Saturday on suspicion of attempting to buy the cargo, which Libya considers stolen.
The source said the men, two of whom had diplomatic passports – one from Senegal and one from a central African country – were freed after a court declined to issue an arrest warrant and the men then left for Tel Aviv.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/03/19/us-libya-tanker-identity-idUSBREA2I19K20140319
Oddie Your last two posts for which thanks.
1.Israel knows no law as we know and is never subjected to any sanctions. The Golan Heights are stolen land.
2.The story of the Morning Glory is worthy of a film script. Noted that the two anonymous Israelis slipped back to Tel Aviv.
Ben Further to the overnight discussion, here is a photo of Coolidge in a feathered headdress. 1927.
http://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/95500721/
New report reveals how ‘American neocons’ stage attacks against alternative media
March 20, 2014 04:22
One of the neocons being Kagan (PNAC), Nuland’s husband.
See how they work.
http://rt.com/usa/neocons-stage-attack-alternative-media-965/
Andy,
I liked your post at 9.32. It was also a good and interesting article that you linked to and I would recommend all to read it. It demonstrates what a mess this whole thing is, the problems caused when unitary states/countries/federations like the U.S.S.R. break up creating national borders where once merely administrative ones existed and what fools Western governments were to start messing about with it. It was all complicated enough before some bright spark decided it would be a bit of a wheeze to engage in a tug-o-war with Moscow using Ukraine as the rope.
So, while there may be qualitative similarities between Russian hypocrisy and breaking of International Law (though I’ve never understood why the Crimean referendum was “illegal” given that it was called by the Crimean government) and that of the West, there is no quantitative comparison at all. Crimea was clearly part of Russia in all but the matter of a line on the map and now that anomaly has been corrected; big deal.
Furthermore, the “occupation” of Crimea by Russia wasn’t preceded by the hideous bombing campaigns that N.A.T.O. is so fond of and Russia’s action was re-active, not pro-active. It was a response to a decade and a half of murderous and illegal interventions around the world by Washington and its puppets and the recent violent coup in Kiev. Was there anyone who didn’t expect it?
Knobkerry
I am not with anyone, I am just me. I like to think that’s my charm. “If you are not with us you’re against us”. Are you channeling George W Bush?
Oddie
“it’s been a long, long time coming…
13 Dec, 2013: Remarks by Victoria Nuland
Since Ukraine’s independence in 1991, the United States has supported Ukrainians as they build democratic skills and institutions, as they promote civic participation and good governance, all of which are preconditions for Ukraine to achieve its European aspirations. We’ve invested over $5 billion to assist Ukraine in these and other goals that will ensure a secure and prosperous and democratic Ukraine…3
___________________
Not a long time coming on this blog, though.
I posted that verbatim extract over a week ago … and then posted it again (all you have to do is listen to the video and use pen and paper).
Reminds me of what Basil was thinking about Hitler in that episode of Ponty Pyithon where he kept telling himself not to mention the war to that German visitor, only to keep doing so.
Yes THF, its because nothing bigger has ever happened in the wirters life and one must perpetuate this feeling for its multpile uses today. How can one make a point about dastard behaviour when one can’t throw in a little Hitler spice with the porridge, well portioned, off course.
Thanks for going through Putins speech with a toothcombe Craig. I can report that activists from the eaqstern Ukraine are gathering support on British football supporters fancine websites.
http://services.pinkun.com/forums/pinkun/cs/forums/1/3058327/ShowPost.aspx#3058327
This one, Sheva, does not like to be confronted with Yatsenyuks present evasive actions, or be challenged on the issue of fascist supporters. S/he proclaims to be middle class, well connected and being able to sample the warm winters in the UK if and when s/he likes.
I asked what s/he thinks of your Putin translation, who knows, s/he might want to upgrade to a political blog, we shall see.
Aren’t we all forgetting something?
http://theoligarchkings.wordpress.com/2014/03/12/rothschild-russia-and-why-everyone-is-getting-upset-about-crimea/
Follow the money.