The immediate cause of the MH17 disaster was a missile shot by pro-Russian forces who mistook it for one of the military aircraft they had been regularly shooting down. It is a terrible tragedy – and tragically not unique. There have been several such events in my lifetime, including the USS Vincennes incident and the Soviet downing of a Korean airliner.
The problem is that Vladimir Putin has revived the Soviet cult of perfectionism – the idea that the state simply cannot make a mistake. That Putin-backed forces could commit an error is therefore unthinkable, as that would imply that Putin made an error in backing and supplying them. Putin cannot make errors. We have therefore seen a stream of desperate propaganda stories emanating from the Russian media, such as the allegation that it was the government in Kiev attempting to shoot down Putin himself. These narratives are aimed at the domestic Russian nationalist audience, but are accepted by the small band of ardent Putin supporters in the West.
Many people in the West, myself included, have been shocked and alienated by the rampant and vicious immorality of Western foreign policy in what I might call the neo-con era, with the ascendancy of Bush and Blair marking a step change in the open use of military force to grab natural resources – a return to the Imperial heyday. The veneer of concern for democracy and human rights layered over Guantanamo, extraordinary rendition, the curtailment of long-cherished civil rights at home and the mass compound crimes of Iraq, Afghanistan and Libya, led to a visceral revulsion.
Putin’s successful opposition to western designs on Syria and Iran gave the impression, quite probably correctly, that a revived Russia was the only effective obstacle to western hegemony, China being passive. But unfortunately this led some who opposed Western neo-imperialism to join in the hero worship of Putin.
The mechanisms of this vary. In my view, the largest number are people who are not psychologically equipped to fight over-mighty power everywhere, which is a lonely path, and prefer the much easier option of joining the entourage of a big power, and convincing themselves that power is good. It is comforting to feel part of a powerful team. Some of course are paid by the Russians, and you see them turning up on Russia Today both as presenters and interviewees, but these are a small section. Some were supporters of the Soviet Union.
What is perhaps most extraordinary is that, the very things which these people criticise most about Western society, Russia and Putin do much worse. At the most fundamental level, the disparity of wealth between rich and poor in Russia is far, far worse than the still appalling level it has reached in the West.
The total Russian economy is 20% smaller than the total British economy. Yet Russia has almost three times as many billionaires as the UK, and the Russian billionaires’ combined wealth is over six times the combined wealth of British billionaires.
Go figure. Yet the delusional continue to contrive to believe that Russia is an alternative to global capitalism.
Russia is not only a much more unequal society than the West. It also much worse in the field of civil liberties and media freedom. Scores of real journalists have been killed, mostly unheard of internationally. The free media has vanished. In the West, the field of opinion reflected in the mainstream media has narrowed right down. In the UK, Andrew Gilligan was sacked for telling the truth about Iraqi WMD, while his source was murdered. But the West is moving in the direction of autocracy; Russia is already there. It in no sense represents an alternative, freer society than the West.
Nor is Russia any less imperialist. Putin is in fact an extremely aggressive nationalist imperialist, as his annexations of Abkhazia and Crimea have shown. Highly significant is the legislation just passed to award Russian nationality to ethnic Russians in former Soviet states. That is racially based legislation. It means for example that 40% of the population of Kazakhstan potentially become Russian citizens, with similar figures in the Baltic states. It is highly aggressive and designed to have destabilising potential.
One fact which has become undeniably clear in the Ukraine is that the pro-Russian insurgency in the East is commanded by members of the Russian military and security forces like Strelkov who are Russian, not Ukrainian citizens, and they are under tactical and strategic supervision from Russia. Again, the self-hating fantasist tendency in the West manage to convince themselves that what is happening in East Ukraine is massive destruction of civilian populations by NATO forces.
People who are that removed from reality cannot be helped.
Much more dangerous are those who do have a grip on reality, who understand exactly what is really happening, and who don’t care. That sums up the position of almost all western governments. The truth is that the financial interests of all those Russian billionaires are completely linked in with those of the super-rich of the West. To take only the UK as an example, these are the people Tony Blair, Peter Mandelson and Boris Johnson lunch and have holidays with. These are the people who employ Gerhard Schroeder and David Owen as lapdogs.
Nobody is more annoyed than Angela Merkel at the downing of MH17, not because she cares about those dead people, but because of the massive effort she has put into ensuring that, whatever Russia does in Ukraine, German economic interests will not be affected. Germany gets most of its electricity from Russian gas, and both Siemens and Mercedes, on a daily basis, have been lobbying Merkel to make sure that nothing is done that hurts German economic interests. Cameron has been receiving the same lobbying from his banker mates. In both these cases, the politicians are being talked to by the people who finance them.
The result is that there has been a strong diplomatic push, particularly by Germany, to divert the question of sanctions on to matters of process. The problem is not Russia trying to annex bits of Ukraine and funding, arming and staffing the destabilisation of a European state. The Germans are seeking to define the problem down to whether or not Russia cooperates in various stages of the air crash investigation.
Putin will continue his dangerous expansionist nationalism because it is a self-trapping path for a politician to take; but also he is encouraged that whatever he does, nobody makes any serious moves to stop him. The people on MH17 were killed because of the pusillanimity of Western politicians, financed and guided by the financial elite.
The pathetic “sanctions” adopted by the US and EU so far have been specifically designed to be completely toothless. They target middle and lower ranking individuals without major western links anyway. None of the top ten largest Russian billionaires has been touched.
Russia’s richest man – Alisher Usmanov – is extremely close to Putin and as chairman of Gazprominvestholdings has been directly involved for a decade in pressurising Ukraine, and was also Putin’s chosen instrument for closing down the free media. But you won’t see Usmanov on any sanctions list – he has 10% of Facebook, 29% of Arsenal FC, the most expensive mansion in Surrey and numerous other western connections, not to mention he is Gerhard Schroeder and David Owen’s direct boss.
Much has been said of the 1.2 billion dollars contract for two amphibious assault vessels Russia has ordered from France. Amphibious assault! Where?
But, actually much more interesting, 1.2 billion dollars incredibly happens to be the combined value of four of the World’s largest luxury yachts, which met together off Cap Ferrat and Antibes from 10 to 16 June this year. They are Dilbar, Madame Gu, Grand Bleu and Hermitage.
In Putin’s Russia, government, organised crime and secret services are absolutely integrated. All were well represented at the series of meetings that took place on those yachts, where deals were done on everything from metal prices to heroin – and Ukraine. If US drones had wanted to do some good in the world, there was their target, but they were too busy killing some 16 year old kid, and numerous bystanders, in Waziristan or Yemen for a dangerous interpretation of the Koran. None of the people at those meetings will appear on any sanctions list, though they are the men who rule Russia with Putin. They will all still be very welcome in boardrooms in London, Berlin and New York.
If Europe had followed from the start the excellent leadership offered by Radek Sikorski, the passengers on MH17 would not have died. I should like to think that the European Council will start to listen to Sikorski now. But I doubt it.
Thanks for your erudite comment Ruth. My thoughts as well.
(I remember you from Postie’s blog. Whata man – we could do with his insight/analysis these days…..)
Postie was well onto the carousel fraud shenanigans. With all the collapsed prosecution cases against carousel fraud, the conspirators must’ve netted a tidy sum.
Craig, are you aware that the Russians released detailed evidence in a media presentation last Monday? That information was based on radar, satellite and other sources. It showed material not disclosed in the western media. Indeed, the fact of the media presentation and its information has not been mentioned in the australian media. I can’t vouch for the UK. The Russians also confirmed that a US satellite was overhead at the crucial time, of a type equipped to detect missile launches.
This is confirmed by the very reliable Robert Parry (consortium news) who cites one of his sources as saying that the US satellite showed Ukrainian soldiers with a missile launcher in the relevant place. Unlike the Russians, the Americans have yet to actually disclose evidence as opposed to claiming they have evidence. (Just like they had “evidence” of Syrian government use of sarin gas, and Saddam’s weapons of mass destruction).
Instead of finger pointing shouldn’t we be demanding that those with evidence actually release it to a properly constituted independent authority and suspend judgment until all the relevant evidence is in?
Craig
thanks for also pointing out that Russians, unlike us, are a separate race. You must have probably also noticed that most of these Russkies have black palates and distinct frog-like web feet. They must have acquired these peculiar features during a very early stage of their evolution pointing out that the most probable place of their origin is somewhere in the Pripyat swamps. What may nowadays seem to us Aryans as nothing more than a vestigial aspect of anatomy must have been then to these early humanoids quite a useful aid during their wild hunting parties of aquatic pray. Some racial theoreticians of the third Reich have indeed described these mutants as “die Sumpfmenschen” i.e. the swamp people. All I can add is Ну, погоди!
Lookit Phil tryin to act all posh. Phil, take a few deep breaths, cuz ah… how to put this… my net worth almost certainly exceeds yours by an order o’ magnitude. Just a matter of probability, not to make things any worse for your miserable shit life, but you’re a relative loser. Not that I can really empathize, you know, I know people way poorer than you, cuz I dabble in rarified human rights concerns and shit like that, but people like you are scared to go where I live. Still you’d like me if we met on the street because I am nice to people in all walks of life.
Two Malaysian Airliners? There’s more to this. I’m not a coincidence theorist.
Good point, James O’Neill
Evidence? Pah! It seems that all the UK/US has to go on is ‘social media’ feeds….
Remember that a US/UK operation was due to happen/happened(?) in Ukraine in July (can’t remember the name of the Operation but I posted the name of it in the previous MH17 thread, but it’s now disappeared!!)
Very strange, a bit like Craig’s pontifications in his first sentence.
Just posting this link to a 12 year old article by Canadian author Richard Sanders for a little bit of historical context:
I thought Craig was going to some little Scottish Festival – Down The Rabbit Hole or something – and he was to be serving beer at The Whistleblower’s Arms???
Was his plane diverted?
Did he fall asleep and forget to get off in Scotland?
Or was he going there all along?
What’s he doing in Washington DC?
Tony
Jon Snow, was Being told to keep away from Children….. Doctor Medhat Abbas forgot to add..stay AWAY FROM PREGNANT WOMEN
http://link.brightcove.com/services/player/bcpid601325122001?bckey=AQ~~,AAAAAEabvr4~,Wtd2HT-p_Vh4qBcIZDrvZlvNCU8nxccG&bctid=3691162163001
“excellent leadership offered by Radek Sikorski”
HAHAHA
That would be THIS Radeck Sikorski,husband of Anne Applebaum no less
http://www.ozy.com/c-notes/radek-sikorski-charting-security-for-front-line-poland/32862.article
Craig,you need to get real.
On Tuesday, mainstream journalists, including for the Los Angeles Times and the Washington Post, were given a briefing about the U.S. intelligence information that supposedly points the finger of blame at the rebels and Russia. While much of this circumstantial case was derived from postings on “social media,” the briefings also addressed the key issue of who fired the Buk anti-aircraft missile that is believed to have downed the airliner killing all 298 people onboard.
After last Thursday’s shoot-down, I was told that U.S. intelligence analysts were examining satellite imagery that showed the crew manning the suspected missile battery wearing what looked like Ukrainian army uniforms, but my source said the analysts were still struggling with whether that essentially destroyed the U.S. government’s case blaming the rebels.
http://consortiumnews.com/2014/07/22/the-mystery-of-a-ukrainian-army-defector/
This from AP.Things appear to be getting desperate.
“WASHINGTON (AP) — Senior U.S. intelligence officials said Tuesday that Russia was responsible for “creating the conditions” that led to the shooting down of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17, but they offered no evidence of direct Russian government involvement.”
“The intelligence officials were cautious in their assessment, noting that while the Russians have been arming separatists in eastern Ukraine, the U.S. had no direct evidence that the missile used to shoot down the passenger jet came from Russia.”
“From satellites, sensors and other intelligence gathering, officials said, they know where the missile originated — in separatist-held territory — and what its flight path was. But if they possess satellite or other imagery of the missile being fired, they did not release it Tuesday. A graphic they made public depicts their estimation of the missile’s flight path with a green line. The jet’s flight path was available from air traffic control data.””
http://www.bigstory.ap.org/article/us-present-intelligence-data-plane-crash-0
But then your anonymous sources no doubt know better, Craig.
CEF – “Two Malaysian Airliners? There’s more to this. I’m not a coincidence theorist.”
At last some logic (or a billion to one chance occurrence)?
Me too, its the same devils who did MH370 wot dun it – shooting themselves in the foot. Putin is just allowing the devils, starting from Willy Wonka all the way up to Obomber, to dig themselves a deeper hole. CM may actually be doing the same too with this post, it was right across the Russian border, Boris even knows when a fly farts there! Pointer – “yatsy” has kept away from the limelight?!!
Fedup
22 Jul, 2014 – 6:04 pm
———————-
Great post Fedup.
“Pete Fairhurst
“Hi Habbabkuk, I don’t know where you have come from either and I’m glad about that. Certainly, judging by the consistent anger and insults in your numerous posts on this thread, I’d rather not find out. Goodbye”
___________________
Have you considered Habbabreak?
If you want a more measured response to this read what Orlov says.
http://cluborlov.blogspot.co.uk/2014/07/fact-free-zone.html#more
Scouse Billy
“Well, Fred here’s someone who doesn’t believe the US.
Here’s his theory:
“Malaysian Airliner Massacre is Wall Street-City of London Riposte to Fortaleza Summit’s Creation of BRICS Bank, The Most Formidable Challenge Yet to International Monetary Fund, World Bank, Federal Reserve and Dollar Domination of World Trade; Putin Should Implement Full Glazyev Dirigism in Response to New US Sanctions.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oQMLCC1XRjQ”
_________________________
Which proves there are a lot of deeply disturbed people out there in the blogosphere, not all of whom are confined to this blog.
Seriously though, surely you don’t believe that claptrap, do you?
********************
La vita è bella, life is good!
“Craig has taken a lot of incoming today. Why hasn’t he defended his position?”
______________________
Perhaps because he thinks that reasoning with lunatics (other than within the context of proper psychiatric treatment) is not usually a very profitable exercise?
And a warm welcome to “Bert” and “Cortisol Bath”, both recently arrived graduates of the Mary & John University. They show promise!
Phil
22 Jul, 2014 – 7:22 pm
————————-
Peacewisher:
“Grosny was awful, but was it any worse than the bombing of Belgrade by NATO.”
—————————–
Phil:
“Fucking hell. You are actually asking if one massacre was “worse” than another? What a fucking question. Worse. Better. As if we are discussing brands of sunglasses.”
“You know the answer Peacewisher. The answer is: they were both bad.”
—————————————————-
So Phil you don’t think that the Nazi Holocaust was any worse than other holocausts (e.g. Armenia)?
The Habba morning shift in.
No content, just insults and stupid questions. A useless idiot. Sent to disrupt,skew and defend the indefensible from the school of Marky Regev the infamous apologist.
But you just don’t have the cutting edge of the late afternoon Habba.Sorry, there are better Habba’s out there.
I’ve got Habbabreak and it works a treat,just haven’t gotten round to installing on the lappy.Enjoy your shift.
Habbabkuk (La vita è bella) !
22 Jul, 2014 – 9:29 pm
“Habbabkuk against racism [unless it’s directed at Palestinians] …”
Peacewisher
Putin killed about 120,000 civilians in Chechnya. My cousin Frazer, who comments here occasionally, was in Grozny.
NATO killed about 4,000 civilians in Yugoslavia.
Both were deplorable, but in scale not even vaguely comparable. It was you who chose to make the comparison.
Putin also killed another 50,000 civilians in Dagestan.
Habbabkuk (La vita è bella) !
22 Jul, 2014 – 9:33 pm
“Why, I wonder, is Mr Goss… absent from this discussion?”
——————————
More to the point Habbabkuk: why are you present in this discussion?
Yossi,
Great link
http://cluborlov.blogspot.co.uk/2014/07/fact-free-zone.html#more
Thanks for that.
By far the most sensible analysis I have read.
I think Craig may have been “Got At” sometime during his career, though he has always been clear that he is a Globalist. It is possible to have your mind influenced, without you being aware of it, and for this change to lie dormant, until a trigger kicks in. The only defense to this is a thorough understanding of the psychological techniques used.
To come out as judge and to have made a decision and publish it, before any evidence has even been presented, I find quite shocking in someone of otherwise obvious integrity and courage.
Tony
OK, Craig. I can understand your disgust. If your figures are right Putin’s campaign was clearly worse (but less awful than Iraq). From what I read there were only about 6000 Chechnyan separatist soldiers so quite why that final outcome should have come about is beyond my understanding. As for Dagestan, according to Wikipedia this was invaded by Chechnyans, and they introduced Sharia law! 32000 civilians displaced but no mention of significant civilian casualties.
The targetting of civilians can never be justified.
Back to lessons of military history though… The storming of Grosny caused the death of many civilians, yet Poroshenko is planning to do just that to Eastern Ukrainian cities. Won’t that be as predictably awful as Grosny?
Has Russia actually annexed Abkhazia formally, or does it just recognise it as a sort of puppet state?
“Who killed Berezovsky?”
The same people who told Craig about the yachts, probably.
The Brit elite is well tied up with the Russians.
Meanwhile, the Bank of International Settlements in Switzerland – the central bankers’ central bank – functioned happily throughout World War 2.
What counts is money.
The ideology that the capitalist state represents the general interest is as false in Britain as it is in Russia. The USSR was just as much a regime of a capitalist state as Her Majesty’s UK is in Britain.
And here we have it, no evidence of direct Russian involvement, so lets bring on the sanctions anyway, ehh, its all about carving up the last and largest unconcquered country on earth.
If that means to drag up the past, so be it, lets relive the past and forget that the findings of the black box has been surpassed by prejeduicial damage copntrol exercises by media dn intelligence operatives.
A big fat NO to Ukraine’s application to join, Petroshenko is propped up by fascists of a kind we already have far too many of.
Maybe we should talk about chechniya, or US/Chinese machinations in the South China sea.
My support to Mr. Ward for his tweet, those who say that they would not fire a missile, when their family and future prospects are destroyed, are liars or cowards or sobs who will be bowled over by the militarists, every time.
As per jpost, words fail me.